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WASHINGTON, FROM THE PORTRAIT BY GILBERT STUART 



AMERICAN HEROES 

FROM HISTORY 



BY 



INEZ N. McFEE 



ILLUSTRATED 




A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 

CHICAGO 



,/t., 16 



Copyright, 1913 

BY 

A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 



ICI.A3 4 70 2 5 



The man that is not moved at what he reads, 
That takes not fire at their heroic deeds, 
Unworthy of the blessings of the brave, 
Is base in kind and born to be a slave. 

— COWPER. 



PREFACE 

It will be readily conceded that the ideal educa- 
tion is the one by which the child is symmetrically 
developed, mentally, morally, and physically. That 
this ideal has been reached, however, to any great 
extent, cannot be successfully claimed. Educators 
hitherto have confined their attention chiefly to the 
mental side of instruction. 

Many people deeply deplore this fact, and regret 
that the teaching of moral principles is so inade^ 
quately provided for in our public school curricu- 
lum. Viewed simply on its face, this is a serious 
defect; but when it is considered that some things 
may be taught indirectly quite as effectively as 
otherwise, the subject assumes a more cheerful 
aspect. 

Normal children love stories; and it is the judi- 
ciously selected story which must supply a large 
measure of this needed instruction. Great deeds 
and the lives of the people who do them hold a 
strong fascination for the eager boy and girl; and 
it is the great and good man, and not the great and 
wicked man, who commands their admiration. 

V 



vi PREFACE . . 

With this thought in mind, the author has 
grouped in this vohime the Hfe stories of eminent 
men who have done great things for their country 
and for humanity. Manifestly there is boundless 
opportunity for the teacher using this biographical 
reader to hold up these '' American heroes " as illus- 
trious examples of the power of noble principles to 
make people great. Hence the author trusts that 
the lessons of lofty patriotism, dauntless courage, 
noble purpose, and deathless patience and persever- 
ance may incite more than one boy to ''hitch his 
wagon to a star" and thus struggle upward to a 
good and useful if not to a famous life. 



CONTENTS 

PACE 

Myles Standish, the Puritan Soldier . . , . i 

Nathaniel Bacon, the First American RcIdcI . . 21 

George Washington, the Great American Patriot . -31 

Nathan Hale, the Patriot Spy 'J'J 

"Mad Anthony" Wayne, the Hero of Stony Point . 87 

Paul Jones, our First Naval Hero 99 

Daniel Boone, the Founder of Kentucky . . . .119 

Thomas Jefferson, the Sage of ^lonticcUo . . 129 

Robert Fulton and the Steamboat . . . . -145 

William Henry Harrison, the Hero of Tippecanoe . 155 

Andrew Jackson, the Hero of New Orleans . . .169 

Samuel Morse and the Telegraph i<S7 

Admiral Farragut, our Great Naval Commander . . 201 

James B. Fads, the Master Engineer . ' . . . 221 

Peter Cooper, the Man with a Noble Purpose . .241 

Notes 257 



vu 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Washington, from portrait by Gilbert Stuart , . Frontispiece 

Myles Standish /(icing i 

Sword of Myles Standish 3 

The Mayflower 4 

Landing of Myles Standish . . 7 

Samoset in Street of Plymouth 9 

Camp of Massasoit 12 

Pilgrims going to church 15 

John Alden and Priscilla . , , 19 

Bacon pleading with Berkeley facing 21 

Burning of Jamestown 26 

Washington, the Colonial Colonel facing 31 

Mount Vernon sj^ 

Greenaway Court 39 

The Battle of Great Meadows -. . . . 43 

General Braddock 47 

At the wharf on a Virginia plantation 51 

Independence Hall 54 

Washington crossing the Delaware 57 

Marching through the sleet on Trenton 59 

Marquis of Lafayette 61 

Washington's '* ragged Continentals " 63 

Washington and Baron Steuben at Valley Forge .... 65 

Surrender of Cornwallis 69 

Washington at Mount Vernon , 71 

Federal Hall, our country's lirst capitol 7^ 

Washington's Coat-of-Arms 75 

Statue of Nathan Hale facing 77 

Capture of Nathan Hale 83 

'' Mad Anthony " Wayne facing 87 

Storming of Stony Point 91 

Medal given by Congress to General Wayne 93 

Battle of the Fallen Timbers ... • • 97 

Paul Jones .... facing 99 

" Rattlesnake " flag loi 

Fight of the Bonhomme Richard and the Scrapis . ... 107 

Medal voted to Paul Jones by Congress 114 

Memorial Chapel at Annapolis . . . . . . .117 

Daniel Boone facing 1 19 

IX 



X ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Daniel Boone in the Kentucky woods ........ 125 

Thomas Jefferson facing 129 

William and Mary College . . . .131 

Patrick Plenry making his immortal speech ..... 133 

]Monticello ^ . ■ . I35 

Discussing the Declaration 137 

House where Jefferson wrote the Declaration 139 

Robert Fulton facing 145 

Fitch's steamboat 147 

Trial trip of the Clermont 149 

The Mauretania 152 

Modern battleship .• ^53 

William Henry Harrison facing 155 

Battle of Tippecanoe 159 

Battle of Lake Erie « 163 

Death of Tecumseh 166 

Andrew Jackson facing 169 

Jackson's headquarters at New Orleans 175 

Battle of New Orleans 179 

The Hermitage 183 

Samuel F. Morse facing 187 

Morse instrument for sending messages 193 

Morse telegraphic alphabet 193 

David Glasgow Farragut facing 201 

Battle of the Essex with the Cherub and Phoebe .... 207 
Farragut's fleet passing the forts on lower Mississippi . . . 213 

Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay 217 

James B. Fads •..-.•.. • • • facing 221 

Gunboats on the Mississippi in 1861 229 

Fads bridge across the Mississippi . . ... . . . 2^^ 

Mouth of the South Pass, showing the Fads jetties .... 237 

Peter Cooper facing 241 

Railroad coach in 1830 . 246 

The first locomotive built in America 246 

Modern locomotives 247 

Cooper Union 251 

Peter Cooper's carriage . 253 



AMERICAN HEROES 
FROM HISTORY 

MYLES STANDISH, THE PURITAN 
SOLDIER 

Many years ago, in the early part of the seven- 
teenth century, when Holland was trying to throw 
off the galling yoke of Spain, Queen Elizabeth 
sent a number of British soldiers over to the 
Netherlands to help the Dutch. Among them was 
one Captain Myles Standish, who was described as 
a brave soldier, short of stature, with fiery red 
hair, an equally fiery temper, and an intrepidity 
that nothing could quail. 

Captain Standish came of a family of wealth 
and position, noted chiefly for its fighting qualities, 
although one of the Standishes was an archbishop 
in Henry A^IIFs time. The family came over in 
the Norman invasion, so it is easy to see why Myles 
loved to fight and also w^hy he liked religious people. 
The Puritan hero was born at Duxbury Hall, in 
Lancashire, England, in 1584, and was less than 

1 



2 AMERICAN HERQES 

nineteen when he went to Holland. With him 
fought another adventurous Englishman, Captain 
John Smith, who founded Jamestown, Virginia, in 
1607. Surely there was work and excitement 
enough in those days to please almost anyone seek- 
ing adventure, and it may be well believed that 
Captain Standish was in the thickest of the fray. 
At any rate, in after years he was very fond of 
recounting the daring deeds performed by his fine 
Damascus sword* in the Netherlands. 

In 1609 a truce of twelve years was declared 
between Spain and Holland. Instead of returning 
to his home in England the doughty little captain 
loitered about the country and finally came upon 
a band of his countrymen at Leyden, a little town 
southwest of Amsterdam. These people had fled 
from England some time before, where they had 
been severely persecuted for their religious belief. 
In those days nearly all countries had a certain 
form of worship, or an Established Church as it 
came to be called, and the people who did not believe 
in its form of worship wxre punished as heretics. 
These people that Standish met w^ere called Separa- 
tists, or Puritans. They had been so cruelly treated 
that they sold their worldly goods and sailed for 

* A star in the text indicates that a note for the corresponding word 
and page will he found under the head of ''Notes" at the hack of the hook. 



MYLKS STAXDISII 



i|l| 



IM 



7 



llolland, the only country at that lime which 
permitted freedom of worship. 

Captain Standish was much pleased with the 
Puritans, and tarried amoni^- them, 
although he did not join their church. 
These people were considering a plan 
to cross the sea and establish their 
religion in the new land of America. 
Captain Standish favored the idea. 
He had heard much of the new land. 
lie knew there were Indians and 
bears and other wild creatures to fight 
over there; and, as fighting was his 
chief business and delight, he deter- 
mined to become one of the number 
whenever the party was organized. 

This was accomplished in July of 
1620, when a small " advance guard " 
set sail from the Dutch port of Delfs- 
haven in a little old ship called the 
Speedwell. They stopped at South- 
ampton, England, where a party of 
friends joined them in a ship called '^^^'^m?'le1? °^ 
the Alayflozcer. On August 5 both 
vessels set sail for America. But the Speedwell 
proved unseaworthy and both ships returned to 



AMERICAN I^EROES 



Plymouth. Here twenty people gave up the voyage 
and the remainder — one hundred and two in num- 
ber — on September i6, 1620, crow^ded into the 
Mayflozi'cr and bravely set sail once more. 

For nine wxary 
weeks the sturdy 
Pilgrims battled 
with the weaves. So 
boisterous was the 
sea that it seemed 
as if all must find 
a watery grave. 
But there was at 




THE MAYFLOWER 



east one 



the number who did not despair. The doughty 
little Captain Standish made up in courage what 
he lacked in stature. Clad in "doublet and hose 
and boots of Cordovan leather " he strode the deck 
with his broad shoulders thrown back in martial 
fashion — his eyes alight with hope and enthusiasm 
— or in the cabin below sought to cheer the faint- 
ino- heart of some fear-smitten comrade. Manv a 
voyager found courage in the hearty confidence 
which shone in the kindly nut-brown face half- 
hidden by a huge russet beard. 

At last the sandy shores of Cape Cod were 



MYLES STANDISH 5 

sighted and great joy prevailed on board. But the 
people had no legal right to settle there. Their 
grant of land — obtained from the London Com- 
pany* — lay far to the southward. So the ship was 
turned in that direction; but they could not go on. 
A furious storm beat them back, and they were 
forced to seek shelter at the end of Cape Cod, in 
what became known later as Provincetown harbor. 

Here Captain Standish, with sixteen brave men, 
landed and marched along the shore looking for 
a suitable location for a settlement. In one place 
they found the earth freshly disturbed. Digging 
here, they w^ere delighted to find several baskets 
filled with Indian corn. They had often heard of 
this corn, but never before had seen it. They took 
enough seed with them to plant in the spring, and 
paid for it later, when the rightful owners had been 
found. 

Captain Standish and his men, not finding any 
desirable place, returned to the ship and got a boat, 
as they did not think it best to proceed far on foot. 
This time they found some Indian wigwams neatly 
covered and lined with mats, but they saw no 
Indians. Neither did they find a good location for 
a settlement. Again Captain Standish and his men 
set out. It was now December, and so cold that 



6 AMERICAN HEROES 

the spray froze to the men's garments as they 
rowed. The nights were spent on shore behind a 
barricade of logs and boughs, in case the Indians 
should attack them. 

One morning, while some of the men prepared 
breakfast, the others loaded the boat with their 
blankets, guns, and provisions, so as to be ready 
to start the moment breakfast w^as over. As they 
sat at their meal of fish, clam broth, and dry bread, 
a terrible and unearthly yell suddenly smote their 
ears. It was the war-whoop of the Indians, and in 
a twinkling a rain of arrows fell in their midst. 
Captain Standish and his comrades ran for the 
boat. The Indians thought they were fleeing for 
their lives and rushed after them pell-mell, yelling 
like demons. But the order of things was soon 
changed. When once the white men got hold of 
their guns, they fired a volley which sent the fright- 
ened savages tumbling over each other in the oppo- 
site direction, and they soon disappeared from 
sight. 

The men then proceeded on their journey, and 
at length came to a place which John Smith — when 
he explored that region — had called Plymouth. 
Here they found running brooks of fresh water and 
a good harbor where the Mayfloivcr might safely 



8 AMERICAN HEROES 

anchor. This place had once been the site of an 
Indian village, but the tribe had died of a pestilence 
some three or four years before. Their cornfields 
stood idly awaiting tillage, and the deserted settle- 
ment seemed to hold out inviting arms to the Weary 
home seekers. 

The little band of Pilgrims* hurried back for 
their waiting comrades, and soon the founding of 
Plymouth was begun. The real landing was made 
December 21, 1620, which date is now celebrated 
as Forefathers' Day. Rude houses of rough logs, 
with oiled paper instead of window glass, were 
hastily put up and made as comfortable as possible. 
But the weather was bitterly cold and the suffer- 
ings of the people were intense. Exposure, poor 
food, and lack of warm clothing brought on terri- 
ble sicknesses. Many of the people died, and first 
among them was Captain Standish's beautiful 
young wife, Rose; but he kept up bravely and went 
among his sick and dying neighbors '' with a hand 
as gentle as a woman's," doing all that he could 
to lighten their sufferings. When spring came 
fifty-one of the colonists were in their graves, but 
the survivors stood firm, and, wfth a high courage 
and faith in God, set about carving out homes for 
themselves in the wilderness of the new^ world. 



MYLES STANDlSli 9 

Since their taste of the white men's firearms the 
Indians had been afraid to attack Plymouth. This 
was well, for many times in that first distressful 
winter there had not been able-bodied men enough 
to make more than a show of defense. In the 




SAMOSET IN STREET OF PLYMOUTH 

spring a chief from a tribe farther east came to 
visit the Indians near Plymouth. He had often 
seen and talked with Englishmen. He told his 
brothers that he was not afraid to visit the homes 



10 AMERICAN HEROES 

of the white men. Therefore, on the following 
morning, he walked boldly into the little town and 
astonished the people by exclaiming, ''Welcome, 
Englishmen ! " in their own tongue. 

The Pilgrims treated him kindly and the chief, 
Samoset, was greatly pleased. In a few days he 
came again, bringing with him an Indian named 
Squanto, who was still more accomplished in speak- 
ing English. Indeed, Squanto was a noted person- 
age. He had formerly lived at Plymouth, and was 
one of the Indians whom Captain Hunt had carried 
away to Spain. From Spain he had been taken to 
England, and then brought back to his native land. 
But here sorrow^ and disappointment awaited him. 
His friends were all dead, and his native village 
lay a desolate waste before him. He was, there- 
fore, more than glad to see signs of life again at 
Plymouth, and made himself so useful and friendly 
to the Pilgrims that they asked him to come and 
live with them. 

This Squanto was delighted to do. He taught 
the settlers how to hunt and fish.* He knew 
wdiere the best game was to be found, and could 
always tread eels out of the mud if no other fish 
were to be had. He showed the Englishmen how to 
plant corn as the Indians did, by putting a small 



MYLES STAXDlSii 11 

fish or two in every hill for fertilizer, and then 
watehing the fields for a few days to see that the 
wolves did not dig up the hsh. tie kept his Indian 
kin in wholesome fear of the whites hv boastinsr 
of their w^onderful power. He told them that the 
Pilgrims kept the pestilence chained in the cellars 
of their houses, side by side with the lire-belching, 
man-slaying gunpowder, and that the palefaces' 
guns never spoke in vain. 

Massasoit^the chief of Squanto's tribe — did 
not quite believe all of this. So he brought several 
men with him and came to visit the Englishmen. 
The Pilgrims received them with great pomp and 
ceremony, but they were careful not to let the 
Indians get much chance to pry into things. The 
visitors were taken to the largest house in the 
village, and then Captain Standish and his men, 
with trumpets blowing and drums beating, escorted 
Governor Carver into their presence. 

The great white chief made them welcome in his 
kindly fashion, while Captain Standish — rigged 
out in all the military splendor he could summon on 
short notice — kept them in a respectful attitude, 
and carefully did what he could to strengthen the 
fear which Squanto said lurked in their hearts. 
Massasoit was greatly pleased with the little visit, 



12 



AMERICAN HERQES 



and went away promising eternal friendship to the 
Pilgrims. Shortly afterward Governor Carver fur- 
ther cemented the friendship by sending the great 
chief a red coat and a copper chain; Subsequently 
a treaty of peace was made which was not broken 
for fifty-four years. 

Gradually, as time wore on, the Indians in the 
surrounding region began to be much afraid of 
Captain Standish. ''Little chief, but heap big 

fight !" was their 
verdict of him. One 
chief, in a neighbor- 
ing tribe, more bold 
than his neighbors, 
threatened to kill 
Squanto''' and make 
trouble for the Pil- 
grims. It really was 
Squanto's fault, for 
he was of ten. deceit- 
ful to the Indians by 
keeping back the presents sent to them, and by try- 
ing to make himself of too much importance; but 
Captain Standish promptly marched his men to the 
unfriendly chief's village and surrounded his tent. 
After firing a volley of musketry heavy enough to 




THE CAMP OF MASSASOIT 



MYLES STAXDISH 13 

subdue the band, and woundini^- three of the sav- 
ages, who escaped, Captain Standish and his men 
marched triumphantly back to Plymouth. 

Upon another occasion, the Narragansett chief, 
who was a bitter enemy of Massasoit and ruler of 
a larger and fiercer tribe than he, sent a bundle of 
arrows tied up in a snake's skin to Plymouth. This 
signified that his tribe intended to make war on the 
Pilgrims. Captain Standish promptly returned the 
skin filled wdth powder and shot. This meant, "If 
you shoot arrows at us, we will kill you with fire- 
arms." The hint was enough for the present, but 
did not prevent trouble later on. 

Other settlements along the coast were con- 
tinually being attacked by the Indians. A dreadful 
massacre had taken place in Virginia, and the Pil- 
grims feared that their turn might come at any 
moment. Captain Standish drilled his men daily, 
and a careful watch was kept at night. The men 
carried their guns to church, and a howitzer* was 
mounted upon the roof of the meeting-house. 

Perhaps the fact that the Pilgrims were so well 
prepared, and that this was thoroughly understood 
among the savages, saved them. Anyway, the 
town of Plymouth was not molested for many 
years. Not, indeed, until the time of the Pequot 



14 AMERICAN HEI^OES 

War, long after the death of Massasoit. Captain 
Standish, however, was forced to be continually 
on the watch. 

In 1022, a merchant named Weston, who had 
loaned the Pilgrims money to equip the Mayflozver, 
came over from London and founded a colony not 
far from Plymouth at a place now called Wey- 
mouth. The planting of this colony proved to be 
a very unfortunate affair for the Pilgrims at 
Plymouth, and caused them no end of trouble. 
These people were very different from their neigh- 
bors. They were idle and shiftless and dishonest. 
They did not seem to be able to help themselves, 
but stole food and furs from the Indians, and also 
lied to them about the people of Plymouth. Thus 
by their evil doings they made the Indians their 
enemies, and made them suspicious and unfriendly 
to Plymouth colony as well. 

One day a messenger from the friendly Massa- 
soit came hurrying to Plymouth with the news that 
a plan was on foot to massacre the people of Wey- 
mouth and Plymouth, and he advised the Pilgrims 
to send Captain Standish to fall upon the leaders 
without delay and kill them before they had a 
chance to carry out their cruel intention. 

The doughty captain snatched his sword and 



16 AMERICAN HEROES 

scabbard from the wall and was soon marching 
northward with ten picked men. After going three 
days through swamp and forest and along the sea- 
shore, they came to the Indian encampment. Here 
were gathered the mighty braves of the tribe. 
Mightiest among them all were the great chiefs 
Pecksuot and Wattawamat. They advanced at 
once with smiles upon their crafty faces and death 
in their hearts. ''Welcome, Englishmen!" they 
cordially cried, then proceeded to flatter and parley 
with Standish, pretending to believe that he had 
come to them upon a trading expedition. And 
Captain Standish matched his wit wath theirs. 

Finally the chiefs grew sneeringly bold and 
taunting. They thought that Standish was not to 
be feared with only fen men behind him. They 
asked him to trade them some of the powder and 
muskets which he had hidden beneath the plague 
in his cellar. Standish laughingly told them that 
he would trade them the Bible instead. They 
then pretended to be very angry. 

Chief Wattawamat jerked his sharp knife from 
its wampum scabbard, and whetted the blade on his 
hand. ''This is a good knife," said he. "I have 
killed many Englishmen with it." Then Pecksuot 
sneeringly drew his knife half-way into sight and 



MYLES STANDISH 17 

patted it affectionately. "By and by it shall see," 
he said. "It shall eat, but it shall speak not. The 
white men say you are a great Captain. But you 
are only a little man. BeholdJ I am not a great 
chief, but I am brave and strong." 

This was too much for Captain Standish. He 
leaped headlong at the boaster, snatched the knife 
from its scabbard and plunged it into its owner's 
traitorous heart. Pecksuot reeled backward and 
fell with his fierce, painted face turned to the sky. 

On the instant a dreadful war-whoop rose on 
every side, while a shower of arrows fell on the 
Pilgrim band. But these men w^ere fashioned after 
the heart of their dauntless Captain. Quickly they 
sent back their answer in a great cloud of smoke. 
The great Wattawamat fell wnth a bullet in his 
brain, and all of the howling, shrieking mass of his 
followers w^ho could run, raced oft' into the forest. 
So ended the crafty scheme to massacre the people 
of Weymouth and Plymouth. 

But the ''stabbers," as the Indians now dubbed 
Standish and his sturdy little band, did not go back 
to Plymouth at once. Their neighbors had need of 
their valiant courage and steady hands, controlled 
by the quick, hot tempers behind them. So they 
wandered here and there, giving aid to the settlers, 



18 AMERICAN HEROES 

until the very name of Myles Standish and his 
soldiers made the savages everywhere shudder with 
fear. However, this was the last hard fighting the 
fearless little captain did for the settlers. 

Captain Standish w^as a very useful man in that 
struggling Puritan community, for it does not seem 
possible that the people could ever have persisted 
in their efforts to found a home in the new world 
if he had not been a bulwark betw^een them and 
the hostile Indians. Indeed, it seemed as though 
he had been ordained by Providence to be their 
guardian angel. 

Yet, strange as it may seem, much of Captain 
Standish's fame is due to the fact that Longfellow 
wrote a beautiful poem about him which he called 
''The Courtship of Myles Standish." Unfortu- 
nately the foundation for this charming story is 
very shadowy. Although it is claimed to have been 
carefully handed down by the Alden family, of 
which the poet was a descendant, it was never 
published until 1814. 

The story runs in this wise: Shortly after the 
death of Captain Standish's lovely young wife, the 
sturdy soldier's eyes fell admiringly on Priscilla 
Mullin, a sweet and charming young girl, who had 
l)een left entirelv alone bv the death of her father. 



MYLES STANDISII 



19 



While the Captain had small fear of Indians or 
other perils, he lacked the courage to ask i^'iscilla 
to be his wife. Instead, he begged his friend, John 
Alden, to i)lead his cause for him. As John was in 
love with the fair lady himself, he did not like 
the idea of serving as proxy for another man, but 
he most manfully did his duty. Priscilla did not 
favor the Captain's 
suit, but she did 
favor John's. So she 
replied, sh y 1 y : 
"Prithee, why dost 
thou not speak for 
thyself, John?" In 
this w^ay John Alden 
won his bride. 

The tradition also 
claims that Captain 
Standish was so en- 
raged at John for 
marrying Priscilla 
that he never for- 
gave him. This at 
least can not be true, 
because the Standish and Alden families were 
always good friends and neighbors in the town of 




JOHN ALDEN AND PRISCILLA 



20 AMERICAN HEROES 

Duxbury, which Myles Standish founded in 1629. 
Captain Standish was not inconsolable at the loss 
of Priscilla, for in the same year he married a 
young girl who came over from England and lived 
happily. He died in Duxbury in 1656, and here, 
nearly two hundred years later, the people of 
Massachusetts, mindful of the debt their Pilgrim 
ancestors owed to the heroic little captain, erected 
a lofty monument to his memory. 



NATHANIEL BACON, THE FIRST 
AMERICAN REBEL 

The year 1676 was a severe one for the people 
in the young colony of Virginia. Their Governor, 
Sir William Berkeley, was a cruel, selfish man. He 
ruled the colony entirely in his own interests, keep- 
ing his subjects in deep poverty by unjust taxes 
and wresting a large, illegal profit from the fur 
trade with the Indians. The Legislature, or Gov- 
ernor's Council, was composed of friends of his 
own, and thus the people had no recourse. To add 
to their troubles, the Indians began to molest the 
settlers along the frontier. Their fields were laid 
waste, their servants killed, and their stock driven 
off and slaughtered; but the Governor would not 
lift a hand to protect them, for fear of losing his 
profitable fur trade! 

The year of 1676 was the time of King Philip's 
War in New England, and reports of the horril)le 
massacres were continually reaching Virginia. The 
Susquehanna Indians and other tribes were finally 
aroused to a dangerous ])ilch, and many of the 

21 



22 AMERICAN HEROES • 

people along the frontier were put to death. Still 
the Governor refused to do anything to protect the 
settlers. At last they took matters into their own 
hands and formed a company about three hun- 
dred strong. But the wicked old Governor refused 
to commission anyone to take command of the 
troops, or to allow them to go against the savages ! 

There was in the colony a certain young lawyer 
named Nathaniel Bacon,* who had come from Eng- 
land several years before. He was a man of wealth 
and education and had purchased a large planta- 
tion about twenty miles below Richmond, not far 
from the Indian frontier. Having himself met 
with heavy losses at the hands of the savages, he 
went to Governor Berkeley and begged to be 
allowed to lead the troops. But the Governor would 
not consent, saying that it was best not to excite 
the Indians further, and that their outbreak would 
soon cease. 

The people, however, knew better. In despair 
they asked Bacon to defy the Governor. But he 
was not willing to do this. However, he went to 
visit the camp of the little band of volunteers, who 
unanimously begged him to become their leader. 
Under the influence of their enthusiasm, he accepted 
the command, and the little armv set out at once for 



NATHANIEL BACON 23 

the Indian encampments along the Roanoke River. 

Governor Berkeley frothed and fumed, and at 
last organized a party of friends and started after 
Bacon, declaring that he would hang him for going 
to war without orders. But they did not find him ; 
for Bacon and his volunteers were in the midst of 
a lively skirmish with the Indians, and hither 
Berkeley and his followers dared not venture. 
When the Governor got back to Jamestown, he was 
met with a deputation from the lower coast settle- 
ments. They told him they supported l)acon, and 
demanded that a new Legislature be chosen which 
should really represent the people. Berkeley was 
frightened. He saw that he would have to yield 
in appearance at least. So he promised that a 
new Legislature should be called at once. 

By and by Bacon and his men came marching 
home. They had routed the Indians, and for the 
present felt that the colony was safe. Bacon's 
enthusiastic friends elected him a member of the 
Legislature, and when the time came for him to 
take his seat, forty of them went down to James-" 
town with him in a sloop. The Governor knew of 
their coming and with the help of two boats and 
a ship managed to capture the sloop. But when 
Bacon reached lamestown Berkeley dared not 



24 AMERICAN HEROES 

carry out the revenge he had planned. The angry 
people were up in arms for their leader, and he 
was forced to let the young man take his place in 
the Legislature. 

But that night Bacon was warned that a war- 
rant was out to seize him the next day, and that 
the roads and rivers were even then guarded to pre- 
vent his escape. Nathaniel Bacon was not the man 
to be taken easily. He mounted a horse and rode 
away across country in the darkness, until he had 
put many miles between himself and his enemies 
and had reached the home of friends and safety. 

In the morning, w^hen the Governor's men went 
to drag Bacon from the house where he had stayed, 
they w-ere both astonished and chagrined to find him 
gone. While they raged and searched, the angry 
friends of Bacon gathered in a mob — five hundred 
strong — vowing to kill the Governor and all his 
friends. A guard was hastily dispatched for Bacon, 
and he hurried back to Jamestown to control the 
infuriated frontiersmen. Berkeley now found him- 
self in the position where he had hoped to force 
Bacon. He had not wit enough to escape, and 
Bacon forced him to sign a commission appointing 
him Major-General. He also made the Legislature 
pass laws for the relief of the suffering people. 



NATHANIEL BACON 25 

These laws were known as '' Bacon's Laws," and 
stood as a monument to the young hero long after 
he had passed away. 

While Bacon and his friends wrestled with the 
Governor and the Legislature, the Indians sneaked 
down upon a little village about twenty miles north 
of Jamestown and murdered the people in cold 
blood. General Bacon at once set out for the Indian 
country; but, just as he was leaving the last town 
on the. frontier, a messenger came riding up saying 
the Governor was raising troops, intending to cap- 
ture Bacon on his return! The General promptly 
turned his army, and set out on the double-quick 
march for JamestovvU. 

But he need not have troubled himself. When 
the militia found they had been called out to cap- 
ture Bacon instead of to fight Indians, they turned, 
as one man, and left the field. The old Governor 
fainted with anger and mortification, and was 
forced to flee across the Chesapeake for safety. 

Upon his arrival, Bacon, at the desire of the 
people, took charge of the government. Tie was 
now between two enemies. The Indians, however, 
seemed the most insistent. For, the moment his back 
was turned, they had again rushed down upon the 
unprotected people along the frontier. He, there- 




THE BURNING OF JAMESTOWN 



NATllAXIl^L JiACON 27 

fore, set out at once for their relief. For many 
days the brave young General and his vaHant l^and 
fought and chased the Indians. Then they turned 
homeward, confident that the savages had tasted 
enough powder to satisfy their war appetite for 
many months. 

When they reached the frontier settlements 
again, they learned. that Governor Berkeley had, 
in some w^ay, managed to get possession of James- 
town. Bacon had already disbanded his men, and 
all but one hundred and thirty-six of them had 
set out for their own homes when he learned of the 
Governor's action. The remnant of his army, how^- 
ever, footsore and hungry as they w^ere, were more 
than willing to attack Berkeley, whom all regarded 
as a common enemy. 

" On to Jamestown ! " was the cry from every 
throat. They set out at such speed and pushed 
onward with such untiring vigor that they were 
rounding the narrow neck of sand which connected 
Jamestown with the mainland before the Governor 
heard of their intentions. 

Under cover of the silence and darkness of 
night, T'acon and his men threw up intrenchments 
about the town and shut in the Governor and his 
l)eople.* Bacon's army was now increased daily by 



28 AMERICAN HEROES 

fresh recruits. Men from all over the colony 
flocked to his aid. They were determined to sub- 
due the Governor and force him to recognize the 
rights of the people. Finally Berkeley and his men 
slipped away down the bay in their vessels; and 
Bacon let them go. But he resolved to make it im- 
possible for the Governor ever again to find harbor 
in Jamestown. He ordered the town"^ to be burned 
to the ground. 

Nearly all of the colony of Virginia was now in 
open rebellion. The people warmly seconded the 
efforts of their brave General, and an effort was 
made to restore the shattered government to order. 
A new Legislature was formed, with Bacon at its 
head ; but, in the midst of his successes. Bacon sick- 
ened and died. He had endured too many hardships 
for the cause of his country. 

It was a bitter blow to the people. There was 
no one else in the colony who could take his place. 
They knew that Berkeley would soon get control 
again and that matters w^ould be even worse than 
before. Surely enough, the old Governor was soon 
back in office, with the reins of government held 
tightly in his revengeful hands, and he spared 
neither whip nor spur. Twenty-two of Bacon's 
most influential friends were hanged, and there 



NATHANIEL BACON 29 

were fines and imprisonments williuul number. 

A cry of horror and protest rose from the suffer- 
ing people. It reached even to the Kings ears, 
and Charles II, himself a vain, selfish man, was 
disgusted. "Why, that old fool," said he, ''has 
killed more men in that poor country than I did for 
the murder of my father ! " He sent for Berkeley 
to come home at once, and there, rebuked by King 
and people, the disgraced, disappointed old man 
soon died, broken-hearted. 

But Nathaniel Bacon and his friends — who 
instituted the first ''Great Rebellion" in America, 
and who gave up their lives just one hundred years 
before the Revolution — did not die in vain. The 
Governors who succeeded Berkeley, mindful of 
these men, were careful not to oppress the peo])le 
too much, lest another Bacon rise up to right their 




WASHINGTON, THE COLONIAL COLONEL 



GEORGE WASHINGTON — THE GREAT 
• ' AMERICAN PATRIOT 

^,When the Second Continental Congress met in 
Philadelphia, in May, 1775, it faced a very difficult 
proposition, for blood had been shed at Lexington, 
Fort Ticonderoga had been captured, and the war 
with England begun in earnest. Already a small 
Continental army had been organized ; but more 
men must be called out, money raised to equip them, 
and a commander-in-chief chosen. 

The easiest part of the problem was selecting a 
leader for the army, because Congress and the peo- 
ple wath one voice called for Washington. John 
Bell, of Maryland, wrote that it was W^ashington's 
peculiar glory that, in all the States, no one but the 
great patriot himself disapproved the choice.* 

And why did the people turn so confidently to 
Washington in their hour of need? Sinij^ly be- 
cause thev recognized in him a o-reat leader. He 
had won their confidence by his courage and al)ility 
in the French and Indian War. In that war he 
had been chosen to command the \^irginia troops 



32 AMERICAN HEROES 

and defend the frontier, because he knew the fron- 
tier and the ways of the Indians so thoroughly. 

In order to learn how he acquired this knowl- 
edge we must turn to the history of his boyhood 
and early life, which shows that true merit was the 
secret of his success. Luck, which some people are 
so fond of quoting, had no place in the career of 
the Father of his Country. He won because he 
deserved to win ; because he had acquired the mas- 
tery of himself, and therefore was able to be a 
leader of men. 

When George Washington's mother learned of 
his appointment, she said: "I am not surprised 
at what George has done, for he was always a good 
boy.'' This, perhaps, is one secret of it all, because 
Washington's goodness was so large a part of his 
greatness. 

As a boy, Washington loved to play soldier. He 
had learned much about army life from his brother 
Lawrence, who served as captain in a Colonial 
regiment raised to help the English in a war with 
the French and Spanish in the West Indies. So 
he drilled and disciplined his schoolmates in the 
old field around the schoolhouse on the Rappahan- 
nock, and always he was the commander-in-chief. 

George was not a remarkably brilliant boy, and 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



33 



there is no record of his having been at the head of 
his classes. In his early school days he learned 
reading, writing, and 'rithmetic — the three r's. 
Later he studied bookkeeping, geometry, and sur- 
veying. Tie had a clear head for figures, and made 
great progress in mathematics. He was a very 




MOUNT VERNON 

neat penman, but not a very good speller. Though 
some of the boy Washington's playmates could 
outstri]) him in the schoolroom, he was easily their 
leader on the playground. None of them could 
throw George; neither could any outrun him, or 
distance him in jumj^ing. Many stories are told of 



34 AMERICAN HERpES 

Washington's wonderful athletic feats when grown 
to manhood. His great strength and imperious 
nature are well illustrated by the following interest- 
ing incident given by Washington Irving in his 
" Life of Washington ' ' : 

"A large party of Virginia riflemen, who had 
recently arrived in camp, were strolling about Cam- 
bridge and viewing the collegiate buildings now 
turned into barracks. Their half-Indian equipments 
and fringed and ruffled hunting garbs, provoked the 
merriment of some troops from Marblehead, chiefly 
fishermen and sailors, who thought nothing equal to 
the round jacket and trousers. A bantering ensued 
between them. There was snow upon the ground, 
and snowballs began to fly when jokes were want- 
ing. The parties waxed warm with the contest. 
They closed and came to blows ; both sides were 
reinforced, and in a little while at least a thousand 
were at fisticuffs, and there was a tumult in the 
camp worthy of the days of Homer. ' At this junc- 
ture,' writes our informant, 'Washington made his 
appearance, whether by accident or design I never 
knew. I saw none of his aides with him ; his black 
servant just behind him mounted. He threw the 
bridle of his own horse into his servant's hands, 
sprang from his seat, rushed into the thickest of the 



GKORCI': W'ASIIIXCTOX 35 

melee, seized two l)ra\vn\- rillenien by the throat, 
keepino- iheni at anirs-lcn.^lh, lalkino- to and shak- 
ing" them.' 

" As they were from his own province, he may 
have felt peculiarly responsible for their g-ood con- 
duct ; they were engaged, too, in one of those 
sectional brawls which were his especial abhorrence ; 
his reprimand, therefore, must have been a vehe- 
ment one. He was commanding in his serenest 
moments, but irresistible in his bursts of indigna- 
tion. On the present occasion, we are told, his ap- 
pearance and strong-handed rebuke put an instant 
end to the tumult. The combatants dispersed in all 
directions, and in less than three minutes only the 
two he had collared remained on the ground." 

In Washington's boyhood the people went every- 
where on horseback. George was not afraid to 
get astride the wildest animal on his father's planta- 
tion, and he had quite a local reputation as a horse 
trainer. He was very fond of horses all his life, 
and at Mount Vernon it was his custom to spend 
a part of every day in the saddle, going the rounds 
of his estates, "visiting the out])osts," as he termed 
it, in his military way. 1lie sight of ^^^ashington on 
horseback always roused the ragged Continentals 
to enthusiasm, because he sat his horse so well. 



36 AMERICAN HEROES 

and presented such a superb and graceful figure. 
Jefferson claimed that ''Washington was the best 
horseman of his age." 

When Washington was eleven years of age his 
father died, and he was left to the guardianship of 
his mother. Mary Washington was a wonderful 
woman; so, perhaps, it is not remarkable that her 
son should become a wonderful man. She took 
pains to bring him up with the noblest and most 
manly ideas, and with the manners and instincts of 
a gentleman. She instilled in his mind a reverence 
for religion and an unswerving rectitude of pur- 
pose. The strictness and sternness in his make-up 
were inherited, no doubt, from his mother's Puritan 
ancestors. She ever ruled her household with an 
iron will. 

One quality of the boy Washington which de- 
serves especial mention was his justness. All his 
schoolmates brought their quarrels to him for settle- 
ment, because they were always sure of an impartial 
decision. Thus Washington laid the foundation for 
the wise legislator he afterward became. 

George Washington left school at the age of six- 
teen. " In these days,'' says Parsons, " many a boy 
of twelve knows more of books and the world than 
Washington did at sixteen. His reading was lim- 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 37 

ited in boyhood, as in later life. But in frecjuenting 
the fields and woods he had gained a fund of infor- 
mation that was afterward to be of great value to 
him as a farmer and as a soldier. At that early age 
he was familiar with the routine of plantation life 
and w^ork. He knew all about taking care of stock, 
breaking horses, mending fences, and other useful 
things. • He was a good shot with the rifle, and was 
fond of hunting." These qualifications all stood 
him in good stead later in life. 

When Washington was in his sixteenth year he 
went to Mount Vernon to live with his elder brother, 
Lawrence, a gentleman of rare culture and nol)il- 
ity of character. Here he continued his studies in 
mathematics and his practice of surveying. His 
brother had married Anne, a daughter of Sir Will- 
iam Fairfax, who for some years had been mana- 
ger of the vast estates of his cousin. Lord Thomas 
Fairfax, in America. At "Belvoir," a few miles 
below Mount \xrnon, on the Potomac, he lived in 
the lavish style of a true English country gentle- 
man. Washington, as the friend of young George 
Fairfax, was a welcome guest at lielvoir. Here 
it was that Washington first met Lord Thomas 
Fairfax, who became one of his earliest and mo<t 
valued friends and was also his first patron. 



38 AMERICAN HEROES 

Lord Fairfax owned immense estates in north- 
ern Virginia, which he decided to have surveyed 
previous to opening them for settlement. Having 
taken a great Hking to young George, and noting his 
interest in surveying, he employed him to survey 
some of this wild land. 

At this time Washington was just sixteen. He 
set out at once in company with his friend, George 
Fairfax, from Greenaway Court, the hunting lodge 
Lord Fairfax had built in the forest. Together 
they threaded the mazes of the wilderness, crossing- 
rugged mountains, swamming their horses through 
swollen streams, and sleeping sometimes in the 
rough straw beds of the settlers, covered w'ith a 
ragged blanket or a bearskin ; or more often 
stretched upon a bed of hay beside their camp-fire. 

Young Washington must have studied his books 
on surveying very carefully, for he performed his 
difficult task in about four wxeks' time, to the entire 
satisfaction of his employer, and, in so doing, made 
a name for himself as a surveyor. Others soon 
wanted his services, and thus the young man busied 
himself for the next three years. He soon became 
accustomed to the rough life of the w^oods. " It was 
a good school for a soldier," says Eggleston. 
'' Every man was his own cook, toasting his meat 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



39 



on ci forked slick, and eatinj^- it off a chip instead of 
a pkile." The industrious young man found Uie 
work quite proiital)le, as he says he made a doubloon 
a day, and sometimes six pistoles.* 

George Washington was prudent also. He in- 
vested his savings carefully in land. The work 
of surveying gave him an opportunity to see the 







nr\][ 






V 1 



GREENAWAY COURT 



- <^//> 



country, and he was able to buy many a choice 
tract at a very low price. For, in those days, land 
was more plentiful than money. "Thus," savs 
Parsons, ''Washington, by industry, economy, and 
foresight, laid the foundation for his career of 



40 AAIERICAN HEROES 

prosperity as a farmer and public man. But 
strenuous endeavor and business judgment do not 
account for the high degree of success that he 
obtained. He had given attention to character- 
building as something important, as well as getting 
on in the world," as may be seen in the rules of 
conduct w4iich Washington fashioned when but a 
boy, and which were remodeled and added to from 
time to time, as the occasion arose. 

When Washington w^as nineteen years of age, 
through the influence of his brother Lawrence, he 
received the appointment of Adjutant-General, with 
the rank of Major. His duties were "to inspect 
and exercise the militia in preparation for an ex- 
pected campaign against the French on the Ohio 
River." Washington gave up surveying and set 
about learning the art of w^ar in a business-like 
fashion. He took lessons in military drill from an 
old soldier, and practiced fencing under the in- 
struction of a Dutchman named Van Bram. 

Lawrence Washington then fell ill, and was or- 
dered to the island of Barbados, in the West Indies, 
for a change of climate. His brother George ac- 
companied him. This trip was of inestimable value 
to the young officer. For several months he was 
associated daily with cultured gentlemen of wis- 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 41 

dom and experience. He became familiar with 
the usages of good society and stored away in his 
serious mind a fund of practical knowledge and 
historical facts. \n the Journal which he kept at 
this time he set down a vast amount of informa- 
tion about the island of Barbados, as well as all 
sorts of miscellaneous odds and ends, showing that 
his eyes w^ere open to the world about him, and 
that he was capable of absorbing the lessons it had 
to teach. 

In the summer of 1752 Lawrence Washington 
returned home to die. About this time Ameri- 
can affairs had reached a crisis. Trouble wnth 
France had long been brewing. The French 
had colonies in Canada and Louisiana. They like- 
wise claimed the country west of the Alleghany 
Mountains. To this territory the English also laid 
claim, and many of the colonists had already crossed 
the mountains and begun to settle in the rich lands 
of the Ohio Valley. In order to keep out these 
English settlers, the French had built a series 
of forts along the west side of the mountains, and 
had also stirred up the Indians against them. It was 
evident that something must be done at once. So 
the Governor of Virginia decided to send a letter 
to the French commander warning him that they 



42 AMERICAN HEROES 

were on English ground, and chose Washington as 
his messenger. 

Washington received the commission October 30, 
1753, and with his guide and attendants set out at 
once. After a fierce struggle with swollen streams, 
rough mountains, and dense wildernesses, they 
came to a settlement on the Ohio River called Log- 
town. Here Washington met a party of Indian 
chiefs from neighboring tribes and had a long talk 
with them. They were suspicious of the English 
as w^ell as of the French, and the best Washington 
could do was to persuade Chief Half -king and 
some others to go with him to visit the French. 

Washington and his party were received very 
politely by the Frenchmen, but they were perfectly 
frank with him. They told him firmly that the 
country belonged to the French, and that they would 
hold it by force, if need be; and would also im- 
prison any Englishman found trading upon the 
waters of the Ohio, or its branches. Furthermore, 
they made no secret of giving whisky to Half-king 
and his Indians, trying to persuade them to leave 
Washington. His mission having been completed, 
the young Major managed to get clear of the 
French fort with the Indians still outwardly his 
friends, and started on his homeward journey. 



44 AMERICAN HEROES 

*- 

After many perils and hardships, Washington 
arrived in WilHamsburg on the i6th of January, 
1754, and at once waited upon the Governor with a 
letter from the French commandant and an account 
of his journey. Shortly afterwards his Journal of 
the proceedings was published, and widely read 
throughout the colonies. It made Washington's 
name known and respected, both at home and 
abroad. People admired the modest way in which 
he referred to his own deeds and adventures, and 
saw at once that it had taken considerable valor and 
diplomacy to accomplish the mission. 

The Journal also made it clear to the Colonists 
that the French could not be driven from the dis- 
puted territory without arms. Few of the people 
were interested enough to go to war. Yet they did 
not really like the idea of being penned into a nar- 
row strip of land betw^een the mountains and the 
sea. Virginia was more greatly concerned in the 
matter than the other colonies, and Governor Din- 
wdddie determined to send an armed force to take 
possession of the Ohio Valley. On the advice of 
Washington, a small company of frontiersmen, 
under Captain Trent, was hurried forward at once 
to build a fort at the junction of the Allegheny 
and Monongahela Rivers; but the French drove 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 45 

them away, and planted a fort of their own on the 
spot. This they called Fort Duquesne. The city of 
Pittsburg now stands on its historic site. 

In the meantime Major Washington, who com- 
manded the second company of volunteers, hurried 
forward into the Western wilderness. Here he 
found himself entirely outnumbered by the French. 
He did not turn back, however, but whirled 
fiercely upon a party of French soldiers who were 
dogging- his footsteps, surrounded them in the 
night, and took twenty-one prisoners. The leader, 
Jumonville, and ten of his men were killed. This 
act greatly angered the French, who claimed that it 
was nothing more than common butchery, and 
vowed to be revenged. 

Washington saw that he must retreat or be 
captured, so he f^ll back to a place called Great 
Meadows, where a barricade they named Fort 
Necessity was hastily constructed. With supplies 
and ammunition nearly gone, matters were at a 
sorry issue when the French burst upon them. 
Washington held the fort for one day; then, know- 
ing himself unable to continue the fight, surren- 
dered with the honors of war, and was allowed to 
march back to the settlements. Though the expe- 
dition ended in defeat and failure, no one blamed 



46 AMERICAN HERpES 

Washington, because everybody felt that he had 
done all that could be done under the circumstances. 

This expedition was really the beginning of a 
great war between France and England. The next 
year troops came over from England, the mother 
country, to drive the Erench from Eort Duquesne. 
Their commander, General Braddock, vv^as a brave 
man, but he was foolhardy and obstinate. He had 
been used only to the civilized countries of Europe, 
with their good roads and well-drilled troops like 
his own. So he laughed at the lank, careless- 
looking frontiersmen, and treated the American 
officers with contempt. If things had been left to 
his decision, the Colonial troops would have been 
dismissed on the spot. Eortunately this was not 
done. Washington was so stung by Braddock's 
treatment that he resigned his commission, although 
later he accepted a position on the General's staff. 

Rough as were the mountain roads, Braddock 
set out for the frontier in a coach ! He kept his 
men well up in marching array and laughed when 
Washington suggested sending scouts out on either 
side of the line. He would accept neither advice 
nor assistance. 

When they drew near to Fort Duquesne, Wash- 
ington again asked Braddock to allow the Virginia 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 47 

troops to take the lead, as ihcy were so well used to 
the woods. But the old General only snorted in 
disdain. The result of his ohstinacy was one of 
the most distressing- episodes in Colonial history. 

As they were 
marchin^C' alon.c a 
n a r r o w t r a c k 
throui^h the woods, 
July 9, 1755, the 
French and Indians 
suddenly l)urst upon 
them. ''All at once," 
says Eg-g-leston,''the 
w^oods rang with 
the wild war-cry of 
the Indians, like the 
barking" of a thou- 
sand wnld animals. 

GENERAT. BRADDOCK 

The forest, but a 

minute before so silent, w^as alive with screaming- 
savages. From every tree and thicket the Indians 
leveled their rifles at the red coats of the English, 
wdio fell like pigeons under their fire. Unable to 
see anybody to shoot at, the English soldiers did 
not know^ what to do. The Americans took to 
the trees and stumps and returned the fire in Indian 




48 AMERICAN HEROES 

fashion, and Washington begged the General to 
order the British to do the same; but Braddock 
made them stand up in Hne, where they could easily 
be shot down." 

At length the British General fell mortally 
wounded, and Washington took command. He 
bravely did his best to rally the troops and save the 
battle. He dashed recklessly here and there; two 
horses were shot from. under him and four bullets 
pierced his coat; but his life was preserved for a 
greater work than saving the day of Braddock's 
defeat. The army, however, was too broken to be 
rallied and what was left of the men fled back to 
the settlements. Washington's conduct in this 
affair made him a hero everywhere. He was at 
once placed in command of the Virginia troops 
and commissioned to defend the frontier. 

The war between the French and the English 
was not finally closed until 1763, but Washing- 
ton performed no great feats in the conflict after 
the year 1758. Then he led the Virginia volunteers, 
in connection with the English General Forbes, in 
an attack upon Fort Duquesne. The fort was aban- 
doned and burned, November 24, before the Eng- 
lish reached the Ohio River. They rebuilt a fort 
upon its site, which they named Fort Pitt, in honor 
of Lord Pitt, England's great Prime Minister. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 49 

On one of his trips to confer with the Governor 
at WilHamsbnrg, Washington stopped for (Hnner 
one clay at the home of a hospitable planter. He 
was introduced to a lovely young widow, Mrs. Mar- 
tha Custis. Her manners and conversation were so 
pleasing to Washington that he tarried until the 
next day, and then finally rode away, leaving his 
heart behind him. The young Colonel found him- 
self unable to forget the beautiful Mrs. Custis, and 
soon became a most devoted lover. Their marriage 
took place January 6, 1759, ''in good old hospitable 
Virginia style, amid a joyous assemblage of rela- 
tives and friends." Time proved the union to be a 
most happy one. The Washingtons had no children 
of their own, but Washington filled a father's place 
to his wife's two children, Martha and John. Later 
he adopted Mrs. Washington's grandchildren, 
Eleanpr Parke Custis and George Washington 
Parke Custis. 

Washington was said to be "the largest land 
holder in the Old Dominion." He was also the 
richest man in Virginia, if not in the Colonies. 
Notwithstanding all this, Washington was a hard 
w^orker. He rose early and got through an amazing 
amount of hard work in a day. He was in the 
saddle much of the time and gave his personal 



50 AMERICAN HEROES 

supervision to the work of his farms. It was his 
special pride and pleasure to have everything first 
class, and he did much tow^ard improving the agri- 
cultural methods of his day. Mount Vernon was 
his favorite estate, and through all the years of his 
life was his heloved home. 

Washington loved to hunt and to fish. He was 
also fond of company and kept "open house." In- 
deed, he frequently referred to Mount V^ernon as 
'' a well resorted tavern." He also gave largely to 
the poor and to charities of every sort.* The drain 
upon his income w-as enormous, and had he not 
been such a careful man of business he would have 
been ruined. Like most of the Southern proprie- 
tors, Washington had considerable trouble with his 
slaves. Yet, he managed to keep about four thou- 
sand acres under cultivation during the last years 
of his life. 

At one time more than five hundred negroes and 
laborers were employed at Mount \^ernon alone. 
'' The Mount Vernon grist-mill not only ground all 
the flour and the meal for the help," says Blaisdell, 
'' but it also turned out a brand of flour w^hich sold 
at a fancy price. The coopers of the place made the 
flour barrels, and Washington's own sloop carried 
the flour to market. A dozen kinds of cloth, from 




»i 




AT THE WHARF ON A VIRGINIA PLANTATION 



52 AMERICAN HEROES 

woolen and linen to bed ticking and toweling, were 
woven on the premises." 

During the peaceful and pleasant years which 
Washington spent at Mount Vernon, immediately 
following the French and Indian War, he was still 
in the service of his country. As a member of the 
House of Burgesses of Virginia, he was a model 
legislator, always concerned for the public welfare. 
He was constantly serving on committees, in which 
his sound sense and wide knowledge of affairs w^ere 
utilized in shaping the important measures of the 
colony. 

"In the First Continental Congress (1774), to 
which he was a delegate, he gained a reputation for 
practical wisdom not surpassed by .any other man 
in that illustrious body." He was not an orator. 
He was a counselor, and the few speeches he made 
in the Continental Congress thus carried the more 
weight. He never talked unless he had something 
to say, and once having determined upon the right 
course to take, he never thought of giving up. Even 
in the darkest moments of the Revolution, when 
failure stared the patriot army in the face and 
people were despairing all about him, Washington 
never lost his courage. 

Small wonder, then, that the Second Continental 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 53 

Congress and the people of the colonies called with 
one voice for Washington when a commander-in- 
chief for the armies was to be chosen! They knew 
their man. Washington had proven what he could 
do upon the battlefield. He was courageous, brave 
even to recklessness when seeking to inspire his 
disheartened men, and was never discouraged by 
failure. 

When Washington assumed command of the 
army, beneath the elm at Cambridge, July 3, 1/75, 
the task before him was one to appall the stoutest 
heart. Never was an army in sorrier plight. 
They w-ere few^ in number, poorly fed and clothed, 
and entirely without discipline, for the colonies had 
never had the money to maintain a standing army. 
Moreover, there w^as but little powder in the coun- 
try, and a scarcity of guns and artillery. Supplies 
were slow in coming. " But the indomitable will 
and sublime patience of Washington triumphed 
over all difficulties, and for eight months he kept 
the British shut up in Boston, while he trained and 
■disciplined his army, and gathered ammunition and 
supplies." * 

As soon as he felt strong enough, he suddenly 
sent an army to fortify Dorchester Heights. The 
men worked like beavers and in a single night 



54 



AMERICAN HEROES 



threw up breastworks, formed of dirt and bales of 
hay, to the great amazement of the enemy. From 
this stronghold they poured shells into Boston with 




INDEPENDENCE HAEL,* 



such success that it soon became too uncomfortable 
for the British. So they got into their ships and 
sailed for safer quarters. Up to this time the 
Americans had been fighting only to obtain their 



GEORGE WiVSlUNGTUN 55 

rights as Englishmen. They wanted England to 
repeal the unjust taxes, and to give them represen- 
tation in J Parliament. They soon saw that their 
demands would never be granted, and determined 
to set up a government of their own. On July 4, 
1776, the Colonies issued the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, declaring themselves "free and inde- 
pendent." But they had yet to prove it. 

The English government at once sent a fleet to 
take the city of New York. Washington made a 
brave defense, but he was forced to fall back across 
the Delaware River into New Jersey. Everything 
now looked black indeed for the patriot army. There 
was less than ten thousand pounds of powder in 
camp, and in a military sense the army was little 
more than a rabble. To add to the trouble, many 
of the officers were jealous and quarrelsome. 

Then, too. Congress, which was made up largely 
of meddlesome politicians who thought more of 
their own interests than they did of the good of 
the country, kept interfering with Washington's 
plans. The Tories also were an evil factor. These 
were people ^^•ho did not wish to separate from 
England; and as some of them were high officials 
and i)ersons of wealth, they had it in their power 
to w ork the struggle for independence much harm 



56 A.AIERICAN HEROES 

• 

Altogether, in those days of 1776 the patriot 
cause seemed at its lowest ebb; but Washington 
alone did not lose heart. Instead, he determined 
upon a daring feat to infuse new life and courage 
into the people. England had hired large numbers 
of German soldiers, or Hessians, to serve in their 
army.''' These men were stationed at Trenton. The 
American army of six thousand men lay on the 
opposite side of the Delaware. Washington's plan 
had been to divide his troops into three divisions, 
cross the Delaware in the night, and fall upon the 
Hessian camp. Tw^o of the division commanders 
failed to do their part and only Washington's own 
corps of twenty- four hundred men and twenty small 
pieces of artillery succeeded in crossing. The night 
was bitterly cold, and the river dangerously high 
and full of floating ice; but Colonel Glover's regi- 
ment of Marblehead fishermen rowed them safely 
over. However, it was three in the morning before 
all had crossed, and the little army was nine miles 
from Trenton; but through a driving storm of 
snow and sleet those brave Continentals and their 
intrepid leader pushed on and completely surprised 
the Hessian garrison, who were hardly awake. 
Washington took one thousand prisoners, and 
slipped back across the Delaware into Pennsylvania. 



58 AMERICAN HEROES 

The news of this victory was so glorious that 
the people could not believe it. To convince them, 
the Hessians were marched through the streets of 
Philadelphia, and one of their flags was sent to 
Baltimore to be inspected by Congress. The eft'ect 
was miraculous. The discouraged country became 
aflame with enthusiasm. '^Militia was hurried for- 
ward ; the Jerseymen gathered at Morristown ; 
money w^as raised ; the New England troops, wdiose 
time of service had expired, were persuaded to stay 
six weeks longer, and December 29, 1776, Washing- 
ton again entered Trenton." 

This came near being a fatal step. The British 
General, Cornwallis, anxious to avenge the capture 
of the Hessians, came hurrying down from the 
North with eight thousand men and hemmed the 
Americans in between his army and the Delaware 
River. Arriving too late on January 2, 1777, to 
begin an attack, Cornwallis went to bed, boasting 
that he ''would bag the fox in the morning." 
But he was mistaken in ''the fox!" During the 
night Washington, under the feint of camp-fires 
brightly burning, had slipped out by an unfre- 
quented road back of Cornwallis' army and made 
for Princeton, where three regiments of British 
regulars were stationed. Cornw^allis never knew 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 59 

"the fox" was gone until the next morning when 
he heard the firing at Princeton, where Washington 
had completely routed a division of his regulars. 
Then he had to hasten with all speed to New 
Brunswick to save his military stores. Washington, 
well satisfied, let him go and went into the hills 




MARCHING THROUGH THE SLEET ON TRENTON 

about Alorristown for winter (juarters. Jn this 
short campaign of three weeks, Washington had 
won tw^o victories, taken two thousand prisoners, 
and infused new life into a defeated army. 

When the news of the x\merican victories 



60 AMERICAN HEROES 

reached England the King and his ministry were 
furious. ''The unhappy affair of Trenton blasted 
our hopes/' they said; but it "saved the Revo- 
lution" and won for Washington a place among 
the greatest Generals of his time. People looked 
upon his march through the lines of the enemy as 
little less than a miracle, and began to realize that 
the man at the head of the American forces was a 
great and safe military leader. Furthermore, he 
had the most tender regard for and sympathy with 
his heroic men, and was '' the father as well as the 
commander of his soldiers." He looked after their 
spiritual and physical welfare, trying to induce them 
to lead moral lives as well as to fight well, and con- 
stantly urging Congress to supply them with food 
and clothing. It is small wonder that his men 
adored him. 

The war was at a standstill until late in May, 
when Washington moved slowly from his head- 
quarters at Morristown into New York State. The 
British General, Howe, who was quartered in New 
York city, made no effort to stop him. He had 
made up his mind to capture Philadelphia, where 
Congress was in session, and set sail for that city 
as soon as Washington was well on the way. For- 
tunately, a letter from Howe to General Burgoyne, 




THE MARQUIS OF LAFAYETTE 



62 AMERICAN HEROES . 

who was then at w^ork near Albany, fell into 
Washington's hands. He learned that the British 
were going to try to separate the Middle and East- 
ern States by cutting a way through New York, 
and he surmised that Howe had embarked for 
Philadelphia. Washington at once turned about 
and hurried for that city, arriving August 2, 1777, 
slightly in advance of the troops. Here he first met 
the noble young Frenchman, Lafayette, who had 
just been commissioned a Major-General in the 
Continental army, having volunteered his services 
to the American cause without pay. It was the 
beginning of a lifelong and affectionate friendship 
between the two men. 

While Washington waited for Howe, he was 
delighted to hear of the success of the Northern 
Continentals at Bennington and Oriskany,* and of 
the flying of our first national flag at the latter 
place. He had sent General Schuyler, with Morgan 
and Arnold, to check Burgoyne's march from 
Canada southward, and he felt that they were 
doing it thoroughly. Indeed, from the time a por- 
tion of Burgoyne's army met Colonel John Stark 
and the ''Green Mountain Boys" at Bennington, 
that General's defeat was certain. Howe was at 
sea, no one knew just where, and was powerless 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



63 



to aid him. "The whole country was up in arms," 
says Eg'gleston. "The miHtia, often barefoot, and 
sometimes in their shirt-sleeves, carryini^- fowling- 
pieces, flocked to the American standard. These 
men were used to hunting, and knew how to shoot. 




WASHINGTON'S RAGGED CONTINENTALS 



They also knew the country round about in every 
nook and corner. Burgoyne, on the other hand, 
did not know the woods, and had no scouts who 
knew them. Wherever he met the Americans a 



64 AMERICAN HEROES 

desperate battle followed. He found it impossible 
to force his way to Albany, and the road back was 
also closed to him. The x\mericans were, in fact, 
all aromid him, and the final struggle was des- 
perate," ending in his complete defeat. 

Congress, to its shame, removed Schuyler from 
command just at the moment of victory; but 
thanks to the brave work of Arnold and Morgan, 
Gates — who succeeded him — was able to force 
Burgoyne to surrender his fine army of six thou- 
sand men at Saratoga, October 17, 1777. It was 
a glorious victory and covered Washington's defeat 
at Philadelphia. For the commander-in-chief had 
crippled his forces to aid the North. He had but 
seven thousand poorly fed, half-barefooted men, 
and they were no match against the flower of the 
British army, when Howe finally arrived. Wash- 
ington was forced to retreat at Brandywine; and 
at Germantown, October 4, his army became con- 
fused and panic-stricken by smoke and fog, and 
fled almost at the moment of victory. This mis- 
fortune left Philadelphia helpless before Howe. 

During the winter of 1777-78, Washington went 
into winter quarters at Valley Forge, on the west 
bank of the Schuylkill River. The people had not 
vet been aroused to the full value of the victorv at 




WASHINGTOX AND BAROX STEUBEN AT VALLEY FORGE 



66 AMERICAN HEROES 

Saratoga. Everything seemed very black indeed. 
The country round about had been pretty thor- 
oughly foraged by the British. The people, tempted 
by British gold, carried what little produce they 
had to Philadelphia. The Continentals were starv- 
ing. Their clothes were falling away in rags ; some 
of them were without blankets; and they suffered 
beyond description in the log huts which had been 
hastily built for them. Many were ill and dis- 
couraged, and death and desertion rapidly thinned 
the ranks. As a last straw, some of the officers 
formed a plot to displace Washington and put Gates 
in command. It was called the " Conway Cabal," 
from its ringleader. 

"Never," says Parsons, "did Washington's 
character appear to better advantage than when 
he was passing through this, the severest ordeal 
of his life. With dignity and seK-restraint he bore 
up under this grievous trial, which, in addition to 
his other burdens, he found a heavy load to carry. 
The scheme failed and reacted upon its authors, 
while Washington found himself growing in public 
esteem and confidence." 

But it is always the darkest just before dawn. 
England, influenced by Burgoyne's defeat, offered 
the Americans representation in Parliament, or 



GEORGE WASHINGTON (>? 

anything else they wanted, except independence. 
France, alarmed lest they accept England's offer, 
listened at last to the pleas of Franklin and La- 
fayette, and sent a fleet and a large sum of money 
to help the Americans to win their independence. 
The Dutch loaned the patriots several millions of 
dollars. Spain also offered friendly aid. A Prus- 
sian soldier, Baron Steuben, joined the Continental 
army and turned the camp into a military school. 
Under his discipline the soldiers became stronger 
than ever, and, at last, independence was sure. But 
England w^ould not acknowledge it. 

So the war went on with varying fortunes, which 
wx cannot follow here, for the next two or three 
years. In this time the scene of the conflict had 
been largely transferred to the South. 

General Cornwallis, who once had Washington 
surrounded in Trenton, had won several victories 
in the Southern States. But the people would not 
stay whipped. They rebounded like a rubber ball 
after each defeat. In the spring of 1781, General 
Greene drove the British General out of North 
Carolina into Virginia. Here Arnold had been 
ravaging the country and Lafayette trying to 
checkmate him. Cornwallis was in a dilemma. 
Greene would not let him go back to North Caro- 



68 AMERICAN HEROES 

lina; he feared to go farther north, so he began 
to entrench himself at Yorktown, awaiting help 
from General Clinton and the British fleet. 

At this juncture, Washington, who was in the 
North watching New York, which was occupied by 
British troops, made up his mind that if only he 
could capture Cornwallis' fine army the war would 
be ended. So, making every sign that he intended 
to attack New York, in order to keep the British 
from sending soldiers to aid Cornwallis, Washing- 
ton slipped away at the head of two thousand 
American and four thousand French troops for 
\^irginia. On the way he visited his home at 
Mount A^ernon, which he had not seen for six years. 

Leaving West Point August 19, 1781, Washing- 
ton reached Yorktown September 18, making the 
march of four hundred miles in a month's time. 
In the meantime, Wayne had reinforced Lafayette 
with sixteen hundred men and shut Cornwallis up 
in his ''mouse-trap." A splendid French fleet under 
Admiral Grasse, who had landed several thousand 
French troops, took up its station in front of 
Yorktown, and kept the British ships away. Soon 
Cornwallis was completely hemmed in by the French 
fleet and sixteen thousand men. Resistance would 
have been of no avail, so he surrendered, October 




■■:•;-■*-?; 






THE aUliKENDEK OF COli.XWALLIS 



70 AMERICAN HEROES 

19, 1 781, with seven thousand men and eighty-four 
cannon. This defeat so crippled the British that 
it was considered virtually the end of the war. 
While General Washington planned the brilliant 
campaign, the victory was very largely due to the 
help afforded by the French. 

There was not much more actual fighting, though 
the British troops were not called home until nearly 
two years later. So long as they stayed in America, 
Washington urged the necessity of being always 
ready for battle, lest the Americans be taken un- 
awares and lose what they had earned so dearly. 
The treaty of peace was signed November 3, 1783, 
and the last of the British troops left New York in 
November. 

Washington took leave of his troops at Annapo- 
lis, December 2;^, 1783, having served eight and 
one-half years as commander-in-chief. While all 
the world was ringing with his praises, he joyfully 
took up his w^ork at Mount Vernon and never in- 
tended to return again to public life. But this 
dearly earned rest was to be denied him. He was 
to be head of the state as he had been head of the 
army and lead it to safety. The new nation was 
in danger of falling to pieces. Each State was a 
little country by itself. The Articles of Confedera- 



.«/,vi<-';5*^v ■ .rt,.iCiv;"v«^t?>:: 




WASHINGTON AT iMQUXT VERNON 



n AMERICAN HEROES 

tion, by which they were united together, were 
entirely inadequate for the new conditions. Some- 
thing better and stronger was needed. Accordingly, 
a convention was called to meet in Philadelphia 
five years (1787) after the clofee of the war. 
Washington was sent as one of the delegates from 
Virginia, and was at' once made President of the 
convention. 

The convention sat in secret for several months. 
At last they produced our present Constitution, 
binding all the States together into one country, 
under the rule of a President and Congress. It 
was at once submitted to the different States for 
approval, but more than a year went by before it 
had been accepted by a majority of the States. 

When it came time to elect a President, again 
there was but one man for the place — Washing- 
ton! He was elected by nearly all the votes cast. 
A messenger was sent from New York, which was 
then the capital of the country, to Mount Vernon 
to tell General Washington that the people had once 
more chosen him to lead them. 

Washington set out for New York in April, and 
his entire journey was a triumphal progress. 
People all along the way turned out to do him 
homasfe. Little girls strewed flowers before him; 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



73 



men of influence rode beside his carriage ; and the 
towns welcomed him with pubhc banquets. At 
Trenton, where Washington's genius and daring 
had turned the fortunes of our despairing peo])le, 
the l)ridge over which he had passed toward Prince- 
ton on that never-to-be-forgotten night was spanned 



TP**./-^ '-X'**:*.! 



-^, 










FEDERAL HALL, OUR COUNTRY'S FIRST CAPITOL 

by a beautiful arch. Girls dressed in white sang 
songs of victory and strewed flowers before him. 
At New York he was welcomed with every possil)le 
honor. He took the oath of oftice, April 30, 1789, 
standing on the balcony in front of Federal Hall, 
in the presence of Congress and a great multitude 
of people. 

In the Presidential chair, which he accepted not 



74 AMERICAN HEROES 

from desire but from his strong sense of duty to 
his country, Washington guided the nation ''with 
an unswerving eye and a steady hand through dark- 
ness and through storm." Nor was it an easy 
matter, as we may gather from a brief glance at 
the condition of the country at this time. The 
government was new and untried. ]\Iany questions 
arose which perhaps only "the Father of his 
Country" could have settled satisfactorily. There 
w^as no other American who stood so high in popu- 
lar estimation. People had unbounded confidence 
in his honor, truthfulness, and justice, and in the 
high and controlling sense of duty which governed 
his every action. He w^as reelected President in 
1792. He refused election a third time, and re- 
turned to Mount Vernon to spend his remaining 
days in the active out-of-door life which he loved. 
On December 12, 1799, Washington made his 
usual daily horseback ride over his estate in the 
midst of a driving storm of sleet and rain. He 
became thoroughly wet and chilled, and took a 
severe cold. He treated it lightly at first, refusing 
to be "coddled," and saying the cold could go as it 
came. Later, quinsy developed, and he died on the 
evening of December 14, at the age of sixty-seven, 
leaving to his countrymen the priceless heritage of 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 75 

his inimorlal deeds and words. The greatest tril)- 
utes ever paid to mortal man have l)een paid to him 
who was " First in peace, first in war, and first in 
the hearts of his countrymen," — the grandest type 
of an American our country has ever produced. 




WASHINGTON S COAT-OF-ARMS. 




THE STATUE OF NATHAN HALE 



NATHAN HALE, THE PATRIOT SPY 

After his defeat in the battle of Long Lsland, 
August 2y, 1776, Washington was greatly troubled 
as to what he should do. He had withdrawn his 
forces to New York City, but he knew not whether 
it was wiser to stay and defend the city or to fly 
to a place of greater security. The outlook was 
dark indeed. A fourth of the army was sick; a 
third had no tents ; and a large number, chiefly new 
recruits, were short of clothing, shoes, and blankets. 
Altogether the patriot army numbered only four- 
teen thousand men fit for duty, and these were 
scattered along a distance of twelve or more miles. 

The British army of twenty-five thousand brave 
and well-trained veterans lay encamped in front of 
them along the shores of New York Bay and the 
East River. Moreover, the British had a large fleet 
of warships lying at anchor and ready for service, 
while spy ships sailed about continually, watching 
every movement of the Americans. 

Winter was not far away, and Washington 
feared the effect upon the patriot cause, if no effort 

77 



78 ■ AMERICAN HEROES 

was made to attack the British; yet it must be 
made in the face of ahiiost certain defeat. His 
raw, suffering troops had Httle chance against twice 
the number of British regulars. What should be 
done ? 

Washington's headquarters were in the home of 
Robert Murray, a Quaker merchant, and here he 
called his officers together to consider the grave 
and perplexing question. It had just been decided 
to move northward to Harlem Heights — a posi- 
tion much stronger than New^ York, as it admitted 
of a more open line of retreat if that were neces- 
sary; for Washington had no intention of being 
surrounded on Manhattan Island for the winter by 
the King's forces, or, more probably, of losing his 
entire army in one swoop — w4ien scouts came 
hurrying with the news that the British seemed 
to be getting ready to move. But no one knew 
where they were going. 

'' Gentlemen," said Washington, " the fate of 
our army depends upon our finding out the plans 
of the enemy at once." As all agreed to this, it 
was determined to send a spy into the British camp 
to pick up all the information he could find. 

Washington intrusted the matter of finding the 
right man to Colonel Knowlton, one of his aids. 



NATHAN MALE 79 

who had greatly distinguished himself on many 
occasions. It proved to be a diflicult task. All 
who were capable of filling the part shrank from it. 
At last Colonel Ivnowlton bethought himself of a 
clever scout who had undertaken many daring 
deeds, and w-as noted for his rashness and bravery. 
He w^as sent for; but the perilous task was too 
much even for him. The penalty, if captured, was 
too dreadful to contemplate. 

'' No, Colonel Know^lton," he said firmly, " I am 
willing to serve my country in any honorable way. 
I will take any risks as a scout, or fight the red- 
coats anywhere; but, sir, I cannot be a spy, even 
for General Washington, much as I respect and 
admire him." 

This seemed to be the sentiment of all. Colonel 
Know'lton w^as about to give up the search, when 
he was startled by a low, firm voice at his elbow: 
" I W'ill go. A soldier should never consult his fears 
when duty calls." 

He turned in surprise. The voice was that of 
Captain Nathan Hale, a brilliant young officer, 
scarcely recovered from a severe illness. Hale's 
friends pleaded with him not to go. It w^as mad- 
ness, they said, for one whose prospects were so 
brilliant to undertake so perilous a mission. But 



80 AMERICAN HEROES 

Hale was not to be dissuaded, for he did not con- 
sider the vakie of his Hfe where his country's needs 
were concerned. 

*' I wish to be useful," he said, with kindling face 
and eyes alight with the fire of patriotism, "and 
the mission is not without honor, since it involves 
the fate of the army. My country's claims are 
imperious, and I am glad of this opportunity to 
serve her." 

Nathan Hale was Captain of a company of 
Connecticut volunteers. His men fairly worshiped 
him. He was the steward of their rations, clothing, 
and money, and the sympathetic confidant of 
every lad in his regiment. He was a careful stu- 
dent of military tactics, and often served on picket 
duty. But, in spite of all this, he found time to 
arrange wrestling matches for his men, to play ball 
and checkers, and, on Sundays, to hold open-air 
religious services. 

He was born in a little old-fashioned house in 
Coventry, Conn., June 6, 1755. Eight brothers and 
three sisters made the home a bright and joyous 
place. Both father and mother were people of 
sterling worth. Mr. Hale governed his family in 
strict Puritan fashion, in fear of the Lord. He 
was very loyal to his country, and, after the war 



NATHAN HALE 81 

began, all the wool raised on his farm was made 
into blankets for the army. Three of his sons he 
dedicated to the ministry. Nathan was one of these. 

As a lad, young Hale was bright and active and 
filled with a love for all boyish sports. He liked 
books, and read with interest everything that came 
his way. He entered Yale College at the age of 
fifteen, and graduated in 1773, just two years be- 
fore the Battle of Bunker Hill. Shortly afterwards 
he entered upon the career of " schoolmaster," and 
was later elected principal of a select school at New 
London, not far from his home town. 

Professor Hale was well liked by all his pupils. 
He earnestly sought to implant in their minds the 
principles of courage, manliness, and patriotism. 
On the playground, as well as in the schoolroom, 
he was their leader. No one was a better wrestler 
or ball player. 

When news came of the bloodshed at Lexington, 
young Hale was fired with enthusiasm. Lie at- 
tended a rousing mass meeting that very evening 
and was one of the most ardent speakers. '' Let us 
march at once," he cried, ''and never lay down our 
arms until we obtain our independence!" 

A company was formed at white heat, and 
marched for Cambridge the next day. The same 



82 AMERICAN HEROES 

promptness and dispatch marked his conduct after 
accepting Washington's mission. Within a few 
hours he had taken leave of his friends and, in 
company with one of his own trusted soldiers, lay 
in wait for an opportunity to cross Long Island 
Sound. This was an impossibility in the vicinity 
of Harlem, on account of the British spy ships 
patrolling the Sound. So Hale and his companion 
crept stealthily along the Connecticut side until 
Norfolk was reached — a distance of fifty miles. 
Here a sloop was found to carry Hale across to the 
other side. 

En route he changed his uniform for a suit of 
citizen's clothes, and landed on Long Island as a 
schoolmaster in search of a school. Of course, he 
''accidentally" stumbled into a British camp and 
at once began to make friends with the dragoons, 
who, as Hale was a most likable young fellow, 
received him cordially. 

Thus two weeks passed away. Hale journeyed 
from one point to another, always keyed to the 
highest pitch, and scarcely sleeping at night, so 
anxious was he to make note of everything which 
might be of service to the American cause. 

At last his mission was completed. He had made 
the rounds of the British camps and returned to 



NATHAN HALE 



83 



his starting point, unharmed and unsuspected. He 
had learned all that his General desired and more, 
and had his drawings and notes carefully concealed 
in the soles of his shoes. It seemed as if he was 




CAi'TLllK UF NATilAN HALE 



going to get home in safety. Perhaps this fact 
made him the least bit careless. He was very tired 
and hungry, and, feeling that no one would recog- 
nize him in the schoolmaster's garb, he ventured 
boldly into a tavern''' kei)t by a woman nicknamed 
"Mother Chick" that was the favorite loafing place 



84 AMERICAN HEROES 

of all the Tories in the vicinity. Hale should have 
been wise enough to keep away from such a place, 
but the goal was so near that our hero felt no fear. 
He ate a good supper and spent the night at the 
tavern. 

Bright and early next morning Hale was up and 
secretly on the lookout for the boat he expected to 
meet him. Suddenly old Mother Chick burst into 
the room, crying, '' Look out, boys ! A strange boat 
is heading close in shore!" The Tories scattered 
like wildfire, and Hale carefully reconnoitered. It 
was not exactly the spot where he had arranged to 
meet his friends, yet it looked very much like the 
sloop ; so he hastened down to the beach. 

It was not the boat he expected, but he did 
not find out his mistake until he was too close 
to retreat, with six British marines pointing their 
muskets straight at him, and the cry, '' Surrender 
or die!" ringing in his ears. Escape was impos- 
sible, and poor Hale was forced to give himself 
up almost in sight of victory! But he did it 
bravely and unflinchingly, as became a true and 
noble soldier, and the British captain and sailors 
could but admire him. When young Hale was 
brought before General Howe he looked him fear- 
lessly in the eye and bravely owned that he was 



NATHAN HALE 85 

ail American ofilccr. He said he was sorry that 
he had not heen able to serve his country better. 
Without trial of any kind, the British General 
condemned him to die the death of a spy. 

Poor, brave boy! how cruelly brief was the time 
left him. Yet he took the sentence as calmly and 
nobly as he had the capture, but this time no words 
of sympathy came from the heart of his captor. 
He was unf eelin^^ly turned over to Cunningham, 
the brutal provost-marshal, and confined, under 
strong guard, in the greenhouse at the rear of the 
mansion where Howe had his headquarters. 

Here he spent the night alone, denied by his 
heartless keeper even the Bible he had asked for; 
but morning found him calm and ready. At the last 
moment, while preparations for his execution were 
being made, a young officer, moved by Hale's noble 
bearing, kindly allowed him to sit in his tent long 
enough to write brief messages of farewell to his 
mother and his sweetheart. These were passed to 
Cunningham to be sent. After reading these sacred 
letters, the brutal officer tore them into shreds 
before the eyes of his captive, declaring that the 
'' rebels should never know they had a man who 
could die so bravely." 

Just before sunrise September 22, 1776, on a 



86 AMERICAN HEROES 

lovely Sabbath morning, Nathan Hale was led out 
to die. Early as it was, a number of men and 
women had gathered about the apple tree which 
was to serve for a gallows. This, perhaps, excited 
the provost-marshal to more than his usual show 
of cruelty, for, as the doomed youth mounted the 
ladder, he bawled coarsely, ''Give us your dying 
speech, you young rebel ! " 

Nathan Hale paused where he was, and, lifting 
his eyes to heaven, said in a clear, steady voice, 
'' I only regret that I have but one life to lose for 
my country." 

So perished Captain Nathan Hale, the earliest 
martyr in the cause of American freedom. He 
gave his life fully and freely to his beloved country, 
and thereby won immortal fame. More than a 
century later a handsome statue"^ was erected to his 
memory in the city of New York. It stands in 
City Hall Square, one of the busiest spots of the 
metropolis in which he made his great sacrifice. 



"MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE, THE HERO 
OF STONY POINT 

After the battle of Monmouth, which took place 
June 28, 1778, no military events of importance 
occurred until the next spring. Some time during 
the night after that engagement, Sir Henry Clinton, 
who commanded the British forces, slipped quietly 
away and escaped to New York, where he remained 
all winter. Washington retired to White Plains, 
N. Y., and afterward crossed the Hudson to Middle- 
brook, N. ]., where he could more easily protect his 
defenses at West Point and King's Ferry. 

Early in the spring, Washington, thinking to 
make his position more secure, made up his mind 
to fortify Verplanck's Point and Stony Point, twin 
headlands on opposite sides of the Hudson, thirteen 
miles below West Point, and the natural gateway 
to the lower Highlands. 

Before the patriots had completed their work on 
Stony Point, Sir Henry Clinton cast covetous eyes 
on this fine strategic point and determined to pos- 
sess both the forts, so he sent an expedition to 

87 



88 AMERICAN HEROES 

capture them. Owing to the unprotected condition 
of Stony Point, he accompHshed this very easily. 

The British were overjoyed at their success and 
straightway set to work to make a "Little Gibral- 
tar" of Stony Point. For this it was especially 
well adapted, being a rocky, thumb-shaped prom- 
ontory, 150 feet high, extending nearly half a mile 
into the river, which washed it on three sides. 
On the land side was a morass that could be crossed 
only at low tide by a bridge or causeway. It was 
not long before all four sides bristled with breast- 
works, and the top with cannon pointing in every 
direction. Alons* each side of the causewav was 
placed a row of sharpened and spiked logs to form 
an abatis. The fort was garrisoned by six hundred 
men, while a man-of-war constantly patrolled the 
river. Altogether, when the British completed their 
work on Stony Point it was well worthy of the name 
of " Little Gibraltar," and not a very easy proposi- 
tion for an enemy to think of storming. But the 
man whom Washington later selected for this diffi- 
cult task was, like the famous Paul Jones. *' all kinds 
of a fighting man." 

Both armies, though it was midsummer, were 
comparatively quiet: Washington because he was 
not strong enough to take the offensive, and Clinton 



''MAD ANTHONY" WAYNK 89 

because he could nut force his antai^onist into rash 
action. As a final effort he sent Governor Tryon, 
who was noted for his l)rutality, into Connecticut, 
with a force of Tories and Hessians, to ravage the 
country and slay and outrage the people. And he 
went about his work with the utmost cruelty. 

General Washington deeply sympathized with 
the unfortunate people, but dared not leave his posi- 
tion on the Hudson to go to their relief, which was 
just what Clinton wanted him to do. However, 
Washington soon planned a counter move. This 
was nothing more nor less than the recapture of 
Stony Point. It was indeed a very hazardous 
undertaking; but this stronghold in British hands 
w^as a constant menace to Washington's control of 
the Highlands and must be recovered. The only 
question was how^ it should be done. Not by o])en 
assault, surely; but stealthily and under cover of 
the night. But what brave soldier would Washing- 
ton select for this daring deed? Instinctively he 
turned to General Wayne, a gallant officer, fash- 
ioned after a model dear to his own heart. Although 
so daring that he was called '' Mad Anthony " by 
his soldiers, he was likewise warv, vio-ilant, and 
firm as a rock, and is said to have been the hardest 
fighter on either side in the Revolution. As might 



90 AMERICAN HEROES 

have been expected, General Wayne eagerly ac- 
cepted the mission. 

The expedition was planned by Washington him- 
self with the greatest secrecy and skill. Not a detail 
was omitted. Even the dogs within three miles of 
Stony Point were killed, lest an milucky bark should 
betray the presence of the oncoming soldiers. Only 
light infantry* was to compose the attacking party. 

The men were to be divided into two columns, 
each preceded by a vanguard of one hundred and 
fifty chosen men and officers who were to make the 
surprise; and these in turn by a band of twenty 
tried and determined men, who were to remove the 
obstructions, secure the sentries, and drive back the 
guards. The men were all to wear white cockades 
and shout a w^atchword, after they had scaled the 
ramparts, to distinguish them from the enemy. The 
work was to be done with the bayonet only. 

An undercurrent of excitement ran through the 
camp when it was known that over thirteen hundred 
picked veterans had been selected for some impor- 
tant service ; and there was much speculation when 
these men, fully equipped and under command of 
General Wayne, marched rapidly southward from 
Sandy Beach. They had proceeded only a short dis- 
tance when they left the highway and plunged into 



"MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE 



91 



the wilderness. Sing-le file and in silence, they sped 
along rocky hillsides and through gloomy defiles. 
About 8 o'clock in the evening they came to a 
final halt at Springstcel's farm, about a mile and 
a half in the rear of Stony Point and fourteen miles 




THE STORMING OF STONY POINT 

from camp. Here the men dropped wearily to the 
ground and ate their supper of bread and cold meat 
in silence. 

Here for the first time the men learned of their 
destination, and while, perhaps, many a brave fel- 
low's face blanched at the news, their hearts were 
all as brave as was that of their valiant leader. 



92 AMERICAN HEROES 

Quickly and silently the preparations went on as 
planned. General Wayne himself was to lead the 
right column. 

Half an hour before midnight found the troops 
again in motion. Slowly and cautiously they fol- 
lowed their guide, a faithful negro who had been in 
the habit of selling fruit to the British. He had 
obtained the countersign for the night on the plea 
that he could not come in the daytime because his 
master wanted him to hoe corn."^ 

As the causeway w^as overflowed, it was about 
half-past 12 before the troops could cross. The 
whole affair had been so skillfully managed that 
our men were almost upon the outworks before 
they were discovered. Then there was a severe 
skirmish wath the pickets, and instantly the fort 
was in an uproar. The British leaped quickly into 
action, but before they could rally their forces the 
two main columns had scaled the ramparts and on 
every side were seen the white cockades and heard 
the shouts, '' The fort is ours ! The fort is ours ! " 

Colonel Fleury was the first man to enter, and 
it was the hand of the gallant Frenchman that 
hauled down the British flag. Just at the moment 
of victory General Wayne was struck in the head 
by a musket-ball, and for a moment it was thought 



'MAD AXTHONY" WAYNl^: 



93 



he had received his death wound. But the country 
was not yet to lose brave General Wayne. He was 
soon ready to rejoice with his men, for at i o'clock, 
thirty minutes from the time the marsh was crossed, 
the men were shoutino- in honor of their victory!* 





GOLD MEDAL GIVEN BY CONGRESS TO GENERAL WAYNE 

In carrying out this brilliant exploit the Amer- 
ican loss was 15 killed and 83 wounded; that of 
the British, 63 killed and 543 taken prisoners, in- 
cluding- 70 wounded, with 15 cannon and military 
supplies. 

Of course ''Mad Anthony" and his men were 
the heroes of the hour, and well they might be, for 
the brave deed they had done in that midnight hour 
was one of the most brilliant exploits of the war 
for independence, or, in fact, of any war, and won 
great applause from friend and foe alike. General 



94 AMERICAN HEROES 

Washington hastened to congratulate these brave 
heroes in person, while Congress gave General 
Wayne a gold medal and passed a resolution prais- 
ing him for his ''brave, prudent, and soldierly 
conduct." 

The effect of this victory was to put heart into 
the discouraged and sorely tried soldiers, and to 
give them greater confidence in their fighting 
powers. Clinton withdrew the evil Tryon from 
Connecticut and massed his forces to w^atch 
Washington. 

Stony Point is now the property of the State of 
New York, and will ever be a proud monument to 
the daring valor of '' Alad Anthony" Wayne. 

There is one thing in connection with the cap- 
ture of Stony Point that is of lasting honor to 
the American soldiers, and that is that not one of 
the captured men was killed after the surrender; 
and this in face of the fact that the British were 
killing defenseless people in a neighboring state 
and destroying their property. They thus proved 
that huinanity as well as bravery was a virtue of 
the American soldier. 

The record of General Wayne's life is briefly 
this: He was born in Waynesboro, Pa., January i, 
1745. His father was a man of wealth, and had 



"MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE 95 

been a captain in the Provincial service. As a 
schoolboy he loved to study mathematics and play 
war. He was always drilling his schoolmates and 
making them dig ditches and throw up breastworks, 
much to the detriment of their studies and the 
anger of the schoolmaster. As a youth he excelled 
as a surveyor. He was a devoted patriot, ancf early 
entered the army. On January 3, 1776, when he 
was just twenty-one, he was made Colonel of the 
Fourth Battalion of the Pennsylvania Line. 'He 
was ever the idol of his men.* 

While General Wayne is popularly known as the 
hero of Stony Point, he was in fact one of the best 
generals in every respect in the patriot army. He 
excelled as a drill master, and no troops wxre better 
trained than those of the Pennsylvania Line. He 
always had the confidence of Washington, and 
could always be depended on for firmness and wis- 
dom as well as for hard fighting. This was proven 
on some of the most hardly fought fields of the 
Revolution. And his patriotism was of the purest. 
No shade of personal jealousy ever clouded his 
sense of duty or his love of country, no matter how 
ill-treated he might be for political reasons. 

But brilliant as Wayne's services to his country 
had been in its struggle with England, it remained 



96 AINIERICAN HEROES 

for him to render it his greatest service at the close 
of his Hfe. In the autumn of 1790 war broke out 
with the Miami Confederation of Indians in that 
part of the Northwest Territory known as Ohio. 
The Indians were very powerful and were led by 
Little Turtle, an able and renowned warrior. 
General Harmar had set out from Fort Washing- 
ton with two thousand men to subdue the savages, 
and had pursued them almost to Fort Wayne, when 
his 'force was ambuscaded and nearly destroyed. 
The next year a similar expedition was organized 
against the hostile Indians under General St. Clair, 
governor of the territory. In less than two months 
he had been surprised by his wily foes and his 
command nearly destroyed. 

In despair Washington ( 1792) appointed General 
Wayne commander-in-chief of the army and sent 
him West to whip the Indians and restore peace to 
the distracted country. On taking command, " Mad 
Anthony " at once set about raising a force of three 
thousand men. These he drilled for many months, 
with the greatest care, until they were fleet as deer 
and could load and fire while running. When 
Wayne had his men fully trained he set out for 
the Indian country in Northwest Ohio, along the 
Maumee and Auglaize. At the junction of these 



1 









1 ^ i;^. 






i 




... .^ 



'%^' 





^ii. 



98 AMERICAN HEROES 

two streams he built and garrisoned Fort Defiance. 
Then he sent proposals of peace to Little Turtle 
and the other chiefs, who were holding a great 
council on the Maumee. Peace was favored by 
Little Turtle, but most of the chiefs wished war. 

So General Wayne (August 20, 1794) marched 
on the Indians at once, and came up with them near 
Waynesfield. The savages had taken their position 
in a lot of fallen timber, and fought desperately in 
their usual style; but nine hundred of Wayne's 
fleet-footed troops charged them with bayonets, 
and routed them with terrible slaughter. The 
campaign was a complete success, and the Lidians 
purchased peace by ceding a large tract of land 
east of the Miami to the United States. Wayne 
returned to Pennsylvania after this great victory at 
the "Fallen Timbers," which brought permanent 
peace to the Northwest, and was received with the 
greatest honors and applause. He returned to 
Ohio to conclude the treaty with the Indians, and 
died on Lake Erie, December 15, 1796. He is 
buried at Radnor, Pennsylvania. 




PAUL JONES 



PAUL JONES, OUR FIRST NAVAL HERO 

When Congress provided for the organization 
of the navy, at the beginning of the Revolutionary 
War, one of the first men to beg for a ship and 
a commission was John Paul Jones, a wiry little 
Scotchman about thirty years of age. ''I ask no 
pay for my services," he said; "but give me a good 
ship, please, for I mean to go in harm's way." 

Robert Morris, one of the members of the marine 
committee, was much pleased with Jones. Pie 
placed his name at the head of the list of the thir- 
teen lieutenants he had enrolled because he found 
that Jones was easily their superior in point of 
military tactics and knowledge of the sea. 

John Paul, youngest in a gardener's family of 
seven children, was born in Kirkcudbrightshire, 
Scotland, in 1747. He was early crowded out to 
make his own way in the world, being a shipmaster's 
apprentice at twelve. He was mate on his master's 
ship at seventeen, and captain of a merchantman 
at twenty-one. After making several voyages he 
gave up his ship and came to America to visit his 

99 



100 AMERICAN HEROES 

oldest brother, who had been adopted by a relative 
named William Jones, a planter of considerable 
wealth near Fredericksburg, Va. After remaining 
here a couple of years he again took command of 
an English ship. In 1773, his brother having died 
wathout heirs, he returned to America to take pos- 
session of the estate, which became his by the wall 
of their relative, with the provision that he should 
assume the name of Jones. 

Trusting his newly-acquired plantation to his 
brother's able overseer, for more than two years 
Jones gave himself up to society and study, acquir- 
ing, among other things, French and Spanish. He 
entertained with lavish hospitality and formed the 
acquaintance of Colonel Washington, of Jefferson, 
Livingston, the Lees, Franklin, and many other 
prominent men south of New England. He became 
a cultivated man of the world, well able to take his 
place among the distinguished people with whom 
his genius later brought him into contact. Li 1776 
the British destroyed his plantation and carried his 
slaves aw^ay to Jamaica. He had only his sword 
and his genius left. 

For some reason, Jones had always had the most 
intense hatred of England. Even as a child, when 
watching the ships go by his home on Solway Firth, 



PAUL JONES 



101 




"RATTLESNAKE" FLAG 



he had resolved to cross the ocean, fit out a great 
ship, and return to England to "destroy her com- 
merce, and in a hundred ways spread disaster and 
ruin throughout her domain." 

On Jones' admission to the navy, it consisted of 
only two ships, two brigan- 
tines, and one sloop. Thirteen 
new frigates, however, were to 
be completed within the year. 
Men to man these ships were 
enrolled at once and placed on 
board the Alfred, under com- 
mand of Paul Jones, who was 
to "instruct them in the arts and practices of war." 
Here Jones received his title of " Founder of the 
American Navy." Here, also, he hoisted the first 
flag of the Revolution — the ''Rattlesnake flag,"* 
with its significant motto, '' Don't Tread on Me." 

On May lo, 1776, Jones was made Captain 
of the vessel Providence, carrying twelve four- 
pounders. His business was to convey military 
stores from New England to Washington's army 
on Long Island. This was a difficult undertaking, 
because the coast and sound swarmed with British 
cruisers from Howe's fleet; but he succeeded so 
well that he won the admiration of Washington, 



102 AMERICAN HEROES 

as well as the approval of Congress. In the autumn 
he made a six weeks' cruise, during which he cap- 
tured sixteen prizes, besides doing considerable 
damage to the enemy's fishing and trading ships. 
Among the valuables taken was a ''considerable 
quantity of clothing and provisions." These were 
promptly sent to Washington's destitute army on 
the Delaware. 

As a reward for these valuable services, Paul 
Jones was promised the command of a splendid 
ship then being built in Amsterdam for the Ameri- 
can navy. In the meantime he was ordered to take 
command of the Ranger, an old sloop-of-war being 
fitted for the sea at Portsmouth, N. H. He went 
on board June 14, 1777. This was the day Con- 
gress adopted the stars and stripes as the national 
ensign. Paul Jones at once hoisted the new flag on 
the Ranger, and for the first time the stars and 
stripes floated over the sea. 

In November, 1777, he set sail for France with 
news of Burgoyne's surrender. In that country a 
sharp disappointment awaited him. He did not 
receive command of the fine new ship promised him. 
Great Britain had raised such a storm ^over the 
building of the frigate for the American colonies 
that it had been passed over to the French for safe- 



PAUL JONES ■ 103 

keeping. Of course this was a bitter disappoint- 
ment, but Jones, with his usual happy facuUy for 
making the best of things, at once set about making 
the decrepit old Ranger more seaworthy. For fight 
he would, ship or no ship ; and he now had one more 
private grievance against England. 

Soon he was ready for sea, and at once deter- 
mined to secure a salute to his flag from the splen- 
did French fleet in Quiberon Bay. His way of 
going about it was laughable, to say the least. He 
sailed proudly into the harbor and sent very polite 
letters both to the French Admiral and the Amer- 
ican agent, announcing his arrival and hinting at 
his expectation. The American agent dined with 
Jones on shipboard the following day, but carefully 
avoided any mention of the salute. Jones was very 
angry, but he did not permit his guest to suspect it. 
When the agent had gone ashore, however, the fiery 
little Scotchman sat down and wrote the French 
Admiral a letter. He told him very plainly that 
he considered his ship worthy of recognition as a 
representative of the American government, and 
closed by saying that he could show a commission 
as respectable as any the French Admiral could 
produce. 

The letter had the desired effect. The French 



104 AMERICAN HEROES 

Admiral sent word that he would be proud to 
recognize the stars and stripes when the Ranger 
appeared in the upper bay. The message reached 
Jones toward evening. He desired the salute to 
take place during the day, that all about might see 
the compliment. So he tarried in the lower harbor 
until morning, when he sailed up through the double 
line of the French fleet. You may be very sure it 
was a proud moment for him when the French 
guns roared out in honor of the American flag. 
It was not only the first salute which the stars and 
stripes had ever received, but it meant that France 
was from that day openly, as she had long been 
secretly, the friend of the American colonies. 

In April, 1778, the daring Scotchman suddenly 
pulled up his anchor and sailed into the realm of the 
great Mistress of the Seas. It was a bold move — 
one which the French admirals, with their great fleet 
of fifty-five ships, dared not risk — and our hero 
took all the chances of destruction. But fortune 
ever favors the brave. He cruised about for several 
days, burning and destroying many merchant ships. 
Then finally, growing bolder, he swooped down 
upon St. Mary's Isle, intending to carry off the 
Earl of Selkirk, his father's old employer, as a host- 
age. He only failed because the Earl was gone! 



PAUL JONES 105 

At Whitehaven, where hundreds of English ships 
lay at anchor, he entered the harhor, in the stiHness 
of midnight. Here he spiked some of the guns in 
the fort and escaped in safety. He had not yet, 
however, accompHshed the desire of his heart. This 
was to find a ship-of-w^ar, not too strong for him, 
and fight it out, yard-arm to yard-arm. 

An occasion soon presented itself. He fell in 
wath the Drake, a ship not much superior to his own 
in point of strength, manned hy hrave men and a 
fighting Captain. Jones was flying the stars and 
stripes. "What ship is that?" asked the Drake. 
The reply was characteristic of Jones : " It is the 
American Continental ship. Ranger. We challenge 
you and heg you to come on. The sun is an hour 
high. We are due in port and must soon have you 
in tow. Come on ! " 

The Drake accepted the challenge with spirit. 
She made "a good and gallant defense," as Jones 
himself said, hut w^as obliged to haul down her flag 
at the end of one hour and four minutes. She lost 
her Captain and first lieutenant and thirty-eight 
men killed and w^ounded; the Ranger's loss was but 
two killed and six w^ounded. Two weeks later 
Jones appeared at Brest with his prize. The French 
pilots vied with each other as to which should have 



106 AMERICAN HEROES 

the honor of piloting the two vessels through the 
channel, and Jones had now no occasion to ask for 
a salute — every French ship in sight boomed out 
congratulations to the brave Scotchman and his 
beloved stars and stripes. For this exploit the 
American government made him a Commodore. 

Messengers from the French government, now 
openly at war with England, hurried to Jones and 
begged him to accept the command of a fleet which 
they were about to fit out. Our hero was delighted. 
So much deference had been shown him that he 
expected a splendid command, but it w^as not forth- 
coming. For reasons which the French seem to 
have been unable to control, Jones was kept waiting, 
idle and wretched under hope deferred, for a w^iole 
year. Then he was offered the command of a 
motley squadron composed of two frigates, a cutter, 
a brig, and the flagship Due de Duras, an old, worn- 
out vessel, no better than the Ranger, but larger. 

Jones had long since learned that ''beggars can- 
not be choosers,'' so he accepted the command and 
renamed his flagship the Bonhomme Riehard, in 
honor of his friend, Dr. Franklin, and set about 
manning her at once. Fortunately, a number of 
exchanged American prisoners had just arrived 
in France, and Tones was able to select his officers 




FIGHT OF THE BOXHOMME RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS 



108 AMERICAN HEROES 

from them. His first lieutenant was Richard Dale, 
" one of the most gallant seamen the American navy 
ever produced." Much of Jones' after-success was 
due to the courageous assistance of this brave 
officer, and the utmost confidence and love existed 
between them. 

The crew was made up of men of all nationali- 
ties; many of those in the forecastle did not even 
understand the w^ord of command. Yet Paul Jones 
put courageously to sea, as confident of success as 
wxre those who expected great things from him. 
Disappointment, however, seemed to lie in wait 
for him on every hand. Landais, the captain of 
one of the frigates, was mutinous and insanely jeal- 
ous of his commander. Lack of discipline was 
everywhere apparent. The whole squadron seemed 
incapable of either acting together or acting sepa- 
rately. Wind and weather, too, were unfavorable. 
Twice Paul Jones bore down upon Edinburgh, intent 
upon its destruction, but each time the wind blew 
him out to sea again. '^' The cruise seemed likely to 
end in a manner crushing to his hopes, when, soon 
after noon on September 22, 1779, a single ship was 
seen rounding Flamborough Head. It proved to be 
the first of the Baltic fleet of forty merchantmen, 
which Paul Jones had long desired to intercept. 



PAUL JONES 109 

He at once gave chase. The merchant vessels 
scattered Hke wild pigeons and ran for the shore, 
but the two warships which were convoying them 
came on, eager for the conflict. The largest of these 
vessels was a fine new frigate, called the Scrapis. 
She carried fifty guns and had a force almost equal 
two to one of the poor old Bonhominc Richard. She 
was commanded by Captain Pearson, a brave and 
capable officer, w^ho chose to make sport of the 
Americans, as soon as he came w^ithin hailing dis- 
tance, by pretending that he thought the Bonhouune 
Richard a merchant ship, as indeed she once had 
been. 

"'What ship is that?'' he called lustily. ''And 
what are you laden with ? " 

'"Tis the Continental ship Bonhoniinc Richard'' 
shouted the mate of the plucky American ship, 
" and we are loaded w^ith round, grape, and double- 
headed shot ! Come on ! " 

Drummers at once beat to quarters on both ships, 
but it was nearly seven o'clock in the evening when 
the cannonading begap. At the second broadside 
two of the heaviest guns on the Richard burst ; the 
rest cracked and could not be fired. The small 
guns had all been dismantled, and Jones had only 
three nine-pounders to play against the heavy 



110 AIMERICAN HEROES 

• 

broadsides of the enemy. Furthermore, ''the shot 
from the Sera pis had made several enormous holes 
in the crazy old hull of the Bonhoinine Richard, and 
she was leaking like a sieve, while she was afire in 
a dozen places at once." 

Almost any other Captain would have surren- 
dered, but such a thought never entered the head of 
Paul Jones. He called out cheerily, " Never mind, 
lads, we will have a better ship to go home in!" 
and went on bravely striving to overcome the heavy 
odds. He was ably aided by his gallant men and 
his heroic lieutenant. Dale, who seemed everywhere 
at once, urging on the crew of the useless guns in 
an attack against the ravages of fire and water, 
and at last forcing the prisoners in the hold to work 
at the pumps for their lives. 

The Richard was soon literally torn to pieces 
between decks, and Jones saw that his only chance 
lay in grappling with his enemy and having it out 
at close quarters. He managed to bring his ship 
close to the Serapis, and with his own hands made 
fast the bowsprit to his mizzen-mast. ''Now, my 
brave lads, we have her!" he called encouragingly, 
leading an attempt to board the Serapis. The guns 
of the BonJioniiue Richard now touched those of 
the Serapis. As the gunners loaded they thrust 



PAUL JOx\ES 111 

their ramrods into the very ports of the eneniw 
Never before had an Eiii^lish coniniander met such 
a foe or fought such a battle. Captain Pearson's 
better ship and heavier guns now gave him but Httle 
advantage, yet he managed to resist the first 
onslaught of the Americans. 

Soon the two ships had worked into such a posi- 
tion that neither could fire a shot. Locked in a 
grim and deadly embrace, each repeatedly catching 
fire from the other, they lay enshrouded in smoke 
and darkness, till a voice suddenly boomed out from 
the bloody decks of the Serapis, " Have you 
struck?" 

"No," cried Paul Jones; ''we have just begun 
to fight ! " 

With a mighty wrench the Serapis freed herself 
enough to pour a heavy broadside into the hull of 
the Bonhomme Richard. Imagine the condition 
of Paul Jones at that moment ! Every gun silenced, 
except the one at which he himself stood, and his 
ship gradually settling beneath him! To make 
matters worse, the mutinous Captain of the Alliance 
— one of Jones' fleet — now ran up and treacher- 
ously turned his guns on the poor old Bonhouiuie 
Richard, tie thought to destroy her and take the 
Serapis himself. Finding this impossible, he turned 



112 AMERICAN HEROES 

and ran off to windward, leaving the vessels to 
their fate. 

For a time it seemed as though both would cer- 
tainly be destroyed. The topmen of the American 
ship kept up a hurricane of destruction on the decks 
of the enemy. She retaliated by pouring broadside 
after broadside through the hull of the doomed old 
trader. Finally a prisoner escaping from the Boii- 
houune Richard told Captain Pearson that the 
American vessel was sinking. He called again to 
know if Jones had struck. 

"No," cried Paul Jones, in a voice that thrilled 
friend and foe alike; "if we can do no better, we 
will go down with colors flying! " 

Once again the ships lurched and locked together. 
The shot from the Sera pis riddled the sides of the 
Richard and drove the men to the upper deck for 
safety. But as the Americans came up the English- 
men went down, and for the same reason. For the 
moment it was a victory for the British below deck, 
and for the Continentals above. Then one of Jones' 
countrymen crept carefully out on the main yard- 
arm with a bucket of hand grenades. He managed 
to get directly above the main hatch of the 
Serapis, coolly fastened his bucket to the sheet- 
block, and began to throw the grenades down the 



PAUL JONES 113 

hatchway, where the huddled sailors were working 
iheir guns. Almost the first one ignited a row of 
cartridges left exposed by the carelessness of the 
powder-boys, and the resulting demoralization was 
complete. It was the turning point. In another 
moment the men from the Richard were scram- 
bling down the yards of the Sera pis. Human 
endurance could withstand no longer. Captain 
Pearson himself lowered the tlag, which had been 
nailed to the mast. 

So ended the most des]:)erately fought battle 
between single ships known in naval warfare either 
before or since the days of Paul Jones. It is the 
only instance in history of the surrender of a 
British man-of-war to a ship of not much more than 
half her force. The battle was also remarkable for 
the fact that the ship which surrendered destroyed 
and sunk the ship which conquered her, for the 
poor old Donhonunc Richard settled into her watery 
grave about ten o'clock the following morning, with 
a tattered American flag flying at her mizzen ])eak. 

Jones' loyal frigate, the Pallas, under Captain 
Cottineau, had, from the very first, engaged the 
attention of the smaller vessel accompanying the 
Scrapis, and at length succeeded in capturing her. 
The victors at once set sail for port and arrived 



114 



AMERICAN HEROES 



in due time in the harbor of Texel. Such was the 
blow to the pride of England that she caused the 

Dutch government to 
demand that Paul Jones 
leave her harbor at once. 
This he refused to do, as 
Texel was a neutral port. 
The Dutch government 
then threatened to drive 
him out, and had thirteen 
double-decked frigates to 
enforce this threat, while 
twelve English ships 
cruised outside waiting 
for him. But Paul Jones 
kept his flag flying in the 
face of these twenty-five 
hostile ships, and firmly 
refused to leave until he 

Reverse 

MEDAL VOTED TO PAUL JONES waS rCadv 
BY CONGRESS -^ * 

AND EXECUTED IN PARIS All thc VCSSCls iu JOUCS' 

fleet, with the exception of the Alliance, belonged to 
France, and Jones himself sailed under a French 
commission. Consequently the French claimed the 
Sera pis as a French prize and Jones was under the 
necessity of hoisting a French flag on the Serapis, 




PAUL JONES 115 

or of taking the inferior Alliance under the Amer- 
ican flag. Bitter as it was to give up the splendid 
Serapis, he nobly preferred the weaker ship under 
the American flag, and in the Alliance, *m the midst 
of a roaring gale on a black December night, he 
escaped from Texel. 

''The British government offered ten thousand 
guineas for him, dead or alive, and forty-two 
British ships of the line and frigates scoured the 
seas for him. Yet he escaped from them all ; passed 
within sight of the fleets at Spithead; ran through 
the English channel; and reached France in 
safety." "^ 

The name of Paul Jones was now on everybody's 
tongue. He made a tour of the chief cities of 
France as the guest of the nation. King Louis 
XVI, loyal friend of the American colonies, pre- 
sented him a gold mounted sword and made him a 
Chevalier. He was also invested with the Military 
Order of Merit, an honor which had never before 
been conferred on anyone who had not actually 
borne arms under the commission of France. 

In the meantime the Americans were also busy 
doing honor to Paul Jones. General Washington 
wrote him a letter of congratulation ; Congress 
passed a resolution of thanks in his honor; gave 



116 AMERICAN HEROES 

him a gold medal, and voted him a large sum of 
money, which, by the way, was never paid. Jones 
now expected a ship worthy of his fame, but the 
country was too impoverished to furnish it. He 
was finally obliged to return to America, in 1781, 
in the Ariel, a lightly armed vessel, carrying sup- 
plies for the Continental army. The close of the 
war in the year following gave him no further 
opportunity for naval distinction, but in 1783 he 
was sent to Paris as agent for prizes captured in 
Europe under his command. It was a difficult 
undertaking, but Jones was very successful in get- 
ting the prize money for himself and his men. 

The subsequent career of Paul Jones was most 
unfortunate. In 1787 he entered the service of the 
Empress of Russia with the rank of rear-admiral. 
In 1789 he was in command of a naval expedition 
against the Turks in the Black Sea, but the Russian 
naval officers were so jealous of him that he was 
maligned and abused, and, although he succeeded 
in clearing himself, he left Russia with disappoint- 
ment and disgust. 

He returned to Paris in 1790, and died there 
July 18, 1792. The last two years of Paul Jones' 
life were spent in the midst of the terrible scenes 
of the French Revolution. He was ill in body and 



PAUL JONES 117 

greatly distressed in mind because of the daily 
scenes of horror. But he bore up with the same 



MEMORIAL CHAPEL AT ANNAPOLIS, WHERE PAUL JONES 
IS BURIED 

brave courage which had sustained him on the 
Bonhomme Richard. The noble Lafayette was his 
friend to the end. He was attended by the Queen's 
physician and was buried in the St. Louis cemetery 



118 AMERICAN HEROES 

for Protestants. The French people always had the 
greatest esteem and admiration for- Paul Jones, 
many of the highest nobility being his devoted 
friends. Napoleon himself greatly deplored his 
untimely death, saying it had deprived France of a 
great admiral.''' 

In 1899, more than a century later, General 
Horace Porter, the United States minister to 
France, began the search (which continued six 
years) for the great sea captain's remains. In 
July, 1905, after most imposing ceremonies in 
France, his body was convoyed by a fleet of Amer- 
ican warships, under Admiral Sigsbee, to the be- 
loved land of his adoption and placed with naval 
honors under the dome of the beautiful Memorial 
Chapel at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. 




i 



DANIEL BOONE, THE FOUNDER OF 
KENTUCKY 

Every schoolboy is familiar with the name of 
Daniel Boone, the famous hunter and Indian 
fighter. He was the hero of the pioneers and the 
most noted figure in frontier history. While Wash- 
ington and his ragged Continentals were fighting 
for independence along the Atlantic coast, Boone 
and other frontiersmen, as the ''rear guard of the 
Revolution," were laying the foundations of a great 
commonwealth in the wilderness, two hundred 
miles from the nearest Eastern settlements. 

Boone was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 
February ii, 1735. Fie was a hunter from the 
time he was old enough to hold a gun. He loved 
the woods and liked to play at pioneering. One 
day, the story runs, he did not return from one of 
his hunting trips. His family and the neighbors 
searched for him many days. At last they found 
him roasting a piece of meat before a camp-fire. 
The young hunter had been very busy in those days 
of absence, as was shown by the little cabin he 

119 



120 AMERICAN HEROES 

had built of sod and boughs, and the skins of ani- 
mals he had killed drying near by. He was having 
the time of his life. But his father thought he was 
too young to live in the great forest alone, and 
forced him to break camp and return home. 

When Daniel was thirteen eastern Pennsylvania 
became too thickly settled for the Boones, so they 
moved to the wild region along the Yadkin River, in 
North Carolina, where they might live undisturbed 
by civilization. While Daniel's father and brothers 
built the little cabin and cleared a space for corn, 
the lad supplied the table with meat, and roamed 
the country far and wide, studying the forest until 
he could read its secrets as well as the Indians. 

As the years went by young Boone became known 
all along the Yadkin as one of the best hunters 
in that part of the country. One night he was 
hunting deer by torchlight and peering intently 
into the forest for a glimpse of the deer's shining 
eyes, when suddenly he saw a pair of eyes gazing 
at him from a neighboring thicket. He thought 
they were deer's eyes and raised his gun to shoot, 
when he was startled by a girlish scream, and a 
beautiful young woman stepped from behind the 
screening bushes. It was the daughter of one of 
his neighbors. Daniel gazed admiringly into the 



DANIEL BOONE 121 

big, soft, brown eyes and lost his heart in their 
clear depths, llie two were married not long 
afterwards. 

Young Boone built a log cabin for himself and 
his wife at the headwaters of the Yadkin, in the 
depths of the wilderness. Soon, however, he had 
neighbors in plenty, for the country was being set- 
tled rapidly. Then Daniel, true to the instincts of 
his backwoodsman ancestry, became restless. He 
longed to see what was in the wilds beyond the 
wall of the Alleghany Mountains. As with him 
to desire was to do, he was soon hunting bear and 
other wild game in what is now Tennessee. This 
was fifteen years before the War of the Revolution 
began. 

Eight or nine years drifted by. Tennessee be- 
came too tame for Boone. He organized a party 
of six and went over into Kentucky to hunt buf- 
falo. Here he had his first experience with the 
''prairie kings," when he came near being run 
down by a herd of them, but escaped in the hair- 
breadth fashion so characteristic of him. 

One day Boone and a comrade, named Stewart, 
were captured by the Indians. Our hero treated 
the affair as a matter of course. He pretended 
that he would just as soon go along with the Indi- 



122 AMERICAN HEROES 

ans as not, and did all that he cpuld to entertain 
them. Time went by and no chance of escape 
offered. Stewart was in despair, but Boone was 
patiently waiting. 

At last a day came when the savages had more 
than their usual luck in the hunt. A great feast 
was prepared and the redmen ate till they could 
eat no more. Night fell upon a gorged and drowsy 
company. Boone knew that then, if ever, was the 
opportunity to escape. He pretended to be very 
sleepy and was one of the first to drift off to the 
land of Nepahwin. Finally, when all was still, 
he sat up cautiously. An Indian moved. Boone 
lay down again. Presently he sat up again. Now 
all was still. He got up and moved silently across 
the camp to the sleeping Stewart. The backwoods- 
man awoke at the cautious touch. Not a w^ord was 
spoken, but soon the two, guns in hand, were creep- 
ing noiselessly away. They succeeded in getting 
back in safety to their cabin in the woods. The 
place was deserted, and not a trace was left of their 
four comrades, who were never heard from again. 

Shortly afterward Daniel's brother and another 
man from North Carolina came to look for them. 
But the hunters had not yet had enough of the 
wilderness, so they persuaded the two men to tarry 



DANIEL BOONE 123 

with them awhile. One day while Boone and 
Stewart were out hunting, Stewart was shot by a 
party of Indians who were hidden in a canebi-ake. 
His brother's companion was eaten by wolves 
shortly afterw^ard, and so only the two Boone boys 
w^ere left. Still Daniel was not ready to return, lie 
got his brother to go back home for ammunition 
and horses, and lived alone until his return, three 
months later, with Indians and all kinds of wild 
creatures for neighbors. He had more than one 
dreadful encounter with wolves, and once the 
Indians chased him for many miles. 

In 1773, the Boone brothers brought their fami- 
lies and a party of friends into Kentucky, intend- 
ing to make a settlement in the vicinity of their old 
cabin. Before they could reach it, however, they 
were attacked by Indians. Six of the party were 
killed, among them Boone's oldest son. This so 
frightened the women that they went back to the 
nearest settlement. Tw^o years later, just at the 
beginning of the war, Boone Iniilt a fort in Ken- 
tucky which he named Boonesborough, and here 
he brought his wife and daughters. They were 
the first white women in the State. Friends of 
the family soon followed, and thus the first settle- 
ment in Kentucky was begun by Daniel Boone. 



124 AMERICAN HEROES 

For the next few years the people in the little 
settlement at Boonesborough had all they could do 
to hold their own. Many and fierce were the bat- 
tles they fought with the Indians, and that part of 
the State surely justified the meaning of its Indian 
name — "dark and bloody ground." In the thickest 
of the fray fought always Daniel Boone. A record 
of his many encounters and hairbreadth escapes 
would fill a volume. 

On one occasion Boone and an armed party went 
to Salt Lick, about one hundred miles north of the 
fort, to get a supply of salt. Here they met a large 
party of Indian warriors, who captured them and 
carried them ofif to Old Chillicothe, a noted Indian 
town in Ohio. A number of Boone's companions 
were afterward ransomed, but Boone himself was 
adopted into the family of Blackfish, the Shawnee 
chief. The Indians shaved ofif all his hair except 
the scalp lock, painted his face, and dressed him in 
Indian garb. 

For many moons Boone tarried with the savages, 
and dared not make a single effort at escape, though 
now and then a chance was cunningly offered him. 
Finally the Indians ceased to watch him so closely. 
Still Boone tarried. He w^anted to make sure of his 
escape. At last he learned that the Indians were 




DANIEL BOONE IN THE KENTUCKY WOODS 



126 ■ AMERICAN HEROES 

preparing to make another attack upon Boones- 
borough. Then he got ready to escape. 

Providence sent him a chance the very next morn- 
ing. He was squatted before a wigwam, eating 
his breakfast, when a deer appeared in sight. 
Hastily catching up a gun, with his meat still in 
his hand, he gave it chase. The braves about 
thought nothing of it, and stolidly waited for him 
to bring in the venison. Of course, he did not 
return. Later, when they set out to look for him, 
they could not find his trail, which he had carefully 
hidden by traveling in water for many miles. He 
lived on roots and berries, and ventured only once, 
when nearly famished, to shoot some game and cook 
it before a low fire in the dead of night. 

Disappointment, however, was in store for him 
when he at last reached Boonesborough. His fam- 
ily had given him up for lost and had returned to 
North Carolina. He hurriedly helped the people 
to strengthen the fort, and beat off the Indians, who 
followed close upon his arrival. 

Later the old hunter brought his family again 
to Kentucky. As soon as lie reached Boones- 
borough he took command of a band of nearly 
two hundred settlers just starting out to punish a 
large force of savages who, under the command of 



DANIEL BOONE 127 

Simon Girty, a rcnei^adc while nicin, were laying 
waste the country. At Blue iJcks the settlers fell 
into an anihush laid hy the Indians and were nearly 
all killed. This was the most important of Boone's 
Indian battles, and would not have resulted disas- 
trously if the settlers had heeded his advice to be 
cautious. 

After the Revolutionary War Kentucky became 
too thickly settled to suit the heroic old backwoods- 
man, so at the age of sixty he wandered off into 
Missouri to get "elbow room," as he said. Here 
he could lie in wait for the deer; stalk wild turkeys ; 
have bear steak occasionally, and hunt for bee trees. 
He died in 1820, at the ripe old age of eighty-five 
years.* 



1 




THOMAS JEFFERSON 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, THE SAGE 
OF MONTICELLO 

On the 13th of April, 1743, in a farmhouse 
anions- the mountains of Central Virginia, a male 
child was born who was destined to stamp his genius 
and personality upon the future nation. The father 
was a backwoods surveyor, of Welsh origin, and a 
giant in stature and strength. His name was Peter 
Jefferson, and he called his boy Thomas. 

Peter Jeft'erson was the Owner of thirty slaves 
and of a wheat and tobacco farm of nearly two 
thousand acres. He was a stern man, though kind 
and just. One of his favorite maxims was, " Never 
ask another to do for you what you can do your- 
self." He died when Thomas was but fourteen 
years of age, and was ever remembered by his son 
with pride and veneration. 

From the very first young Thomas was an espe- 
cially bright child. He inherited his mother's gentle, 
thoughtful disposition and her love for music and 
nature. He also took naturally to books and studi- 
ous pursuits. He might have been overstudious, 

129 



130 AMERICAN HEROES 

but his love of nature made him a keen hunter, 
a fine horseman, and as fond as Washington of 
out-door sports. 

There were ten children in the Jefferson home. 
Young Thomas was the third. He had a great 
affection for his elder sister, Jane. The two were 
always together in the home nest, and she did much 
toward elevating and ennobling his character. Her 
early death, at the age of twenty-five, was regretted 
by Jeff'erson to the end of his long life. 

Young Jefferson entered William and Mary Col- 
lege when he was seventeen. He was described 
as one of the ''gawkiest'' students of the session, 
but professors and students alike soon found out 
his worth. Dr. Small, the Scotch professor of 
mathematics, w^as particularly attracted to him, 
and exercised a great and beneficial influence over 
his character. 

Among Jefferson's early companions was a jovial 
young fellow noted for ''mimicry, practical jokes, 
fiddling, and dancing." His name, like Jefferson's, 
has since been written indelibly upon the country's 
history. Every school boy and girl knows it. It 
was Patrick Henry. The two were boon compan- 
ions in their youthful sports. 

Shortly after Jefferson entered college, Henry 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



131 



strolled into his room one clay, and delighted him 
with the news that he had been studying- law since 
they parted and that he had come to Williamsburg 
to get a license to practice. Jefferson questioned 



r- 




WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

him eagerly. When he found that the young man 
had in reality studied law only about six weeks, he 
was doubtful of the outcome; but, needless to say, 
young Henry secured his license. 

Some time afterward, when Jefferson was him- 
self a law student and young Henry was a member 
of the House of Burgesses, which met at Williams- 
burg, matters between the King and the colonies 
were brought to a straitened pass by the issue of 
the Stamp Act. Henry felt at once that it was 



132 AMERICAN HEROES 

time to rebel, and prepared his famous set of Five 
Resolutions, and went to the assembly chamber 
primed for the occasion. It is possible that he 
gave his young friend, whose guest he was, a hint 
of what he intended to do. At any rate, young 
Jefferson watched him intently. Suddenly he saw 
his friend draw himself to his full height and 
" sweep with a conqueror's gaze the entire audience 
before and about him." "^ Then, in a voice rich and 
full and musical, he poured out his impassioned 
plea for the liberties of the people. In the midst of 
it, his voice suddenly rang out in electric tones : 

''Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his 
Cromwell, and George the Third — " He paused. 
The house was in an uproar. The Speaker and 
many of the members were upon their feet shout- 
ing, "Treason! Treason!" They thought that 
he was going to threaten the overthrow of 
George III, who was King of England and of the 
colonies. But young Henry did not flinch. He 
looked the Speaker squarely in the eye, and, with 
a superb gesture, added in a tone which thrilled 
all hearers, "May profit by their example. If that 
be treason, make the most of it." 

Young Jefferson never forgot the scene. He 
listened enthusiastically to the heated debate which 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



133 



followed. The '' torrents of sublime eloquence " 
which fell from the lips of Patrick Henry almost 
took his breath away, and a well-spring of patriot- 
ism bubbled into being in his strong young heart. 
He resolved that he, too, would strive to serve his 




PATRICK HENRY MAKING HIS IMMORTAL SPEECH 



country, and to this end redoubled his studious 
efforts, sometimes spending fifteen hours a day over 
his books. The result was that he soon became the 
most accomplished scholar in America. He ex- 



134 AMERICAN HEROES 

celled in mathematics and was acquainted with five 
languages beside his own. 

But first and foremost Jefferson was a farmer. 
He once said: ''No occupation is so delightful to 
me as the culture of the earth, and no culture com- 
parable to that of the garden." 

He celebrated the occasion of his coming of age 
by planting a beautiful avenue of trees near his 
house, which he had built upon a high hill and given 
the name of '' Monticello," meaning ''little moun- 
tain." He delighted in trying new things and 
imported a large number of trees and shrubs to 
beautify his grounds, which were marvelous indeed. 

We are told that "his interests were wide and 
intense," but in nothing, perhaps, did he display a 
more unfaltering zeal than in the cause of educa- 
tion. In his epitaph, which he wrote himself, 
Jefferson makes no mention of his having been Gov- 
ernor of Virginia, Minister to France, Secretary of 
State, Vice-President, and President of the United 
States. Instead, there is a modest mention of the 
three things which he considered had won him his 
most enduring title to fame, viz. : that he was the 
" Author of the Declaration of Independence ; of the 
statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and 
Father of the University of Virginia." All of these 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



35 



had freedom for their core. " T^rce ooycmnicnt; 
free faith; free thought," says Ellis, in his biog- 
raphy — "these were the treasures which Thomas 




MONTICELLO 



Jefferson bequeathed to his country and his State; 
and who, it may well be asked, has ever left a nobler 
legacy to mankind?" 

Jefferson was a member of the convention which 
met in Richmond in March, 1775, to decide what 
part Virginia should take in the coming war. 
He fully indorsed the words of his friend, Henry, 
when that "Demosthenes of the woods" electrified 
his hearers with the thrilling cry: "Gentlemen 



136 AMERICAN HEROES 

may cry, ' Peace, peace ! ' but there is no peace ! The 
war has actually begun ! The next gale that sweeps 
from the North will bring to our ears the clash of 
resounding arms ! Our brethren are already in the 
field. Why stand we here idle? What is it the 
gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life 
so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the 
price of chains and slavery? Forbid it. Almighty 
God ! I know not what course others may take, but 
as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" 

When Washington was elected commander-in- 
chief, Jefferson took the place which he vacated in 
Congress. He was at once recognized as an influen- 
tial member. No one was better than he on com- 
mittees. He was so prompt, frank, and decisive. 
Again, no one had a clearer insight of a situation 
or understood his countrvmen better. He was 
sagacious, wise, and prudent; by birth an aristo- 
crat, but by nature a democrat. He cared very 
little for pomp and ceremony, and despised titles 
and the insignia of rank. He could not make a 
brilliant speech, but in his hand the pen waxed 
mighty indeed 

Indeed, Jefferson is known to fame chiefly because 
of his authorship of that immortal document, the 
Declaration of Independence. In June, 1776, he 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



137 



was appointed one of a conimiltcc of five to draw 
up such a document. The .other members were 




DISCUSSING THE DECLARATION* 



Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, 
and Robert R. Livingston. Providence must have 
decreed that the lot of writing it should fall to 
Jefferson, for no one else could have written it so 



138 AMERICAN HEROES 

eloquently, so inspiringly. The achievement was 
dear to his heart, for he directed that these lines be 
carved upon the granite obelisk at his grave : " Here 
lies buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declara- 
tion of Independence." Glory enough for one man! 

On New Year's Day, 1772, Jefferson was mar- 
ried to Mrs. Martha Wayles Skelton, a beautiful, 
childless young widow. 'Their life together was a 
most happy one ; Jefferson was an ideal husband and 
father, and his wife was ''one of the truest wives 
with which any man was ever blessed of heaven." 
She died just after the close of the Revolution. Six 
children were born to them, but only two — Martha 
and Mary — lived to grow up. 

Jeff'erson looked at life through the lens of a 
philosopher. Here are ten rules which he con- 
sidered necessary for a practical life : 

'' I — Never put oft' till tomorrow what you can 
do today. 2 — Never trouble another for what you 
can do yourself. 3 — Never spend your money be- 
fore you have it. 4 — Never buy what you do not 
want, because it is cheap: it will be dear to you. 

5 — Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, or cold. 

6 — We never repent of having eaten too little. 7 — 
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 
8 — How much pain have cost us the evils which 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



139 



have never happened! 9 — Take ihini^s always 
by their smooth handle. 10 — When angry count 
ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred/' 




THE HOUSE WHERE JEFFERSON WROTE THE DECLARATION* 

Needless to say that he followed these rules 
to the letter. 

Jefferson was known far and wide for his fair- 
ness and justice. He had hosts of friends every- 
\vhere, and he entertained them with such lavish 
hospitalitv that, in his old age, he w^as brought to 
the verge of w^ant, and had to mortgage his estate. 



140 AMERICAN HEROES 

Jefferson deplored slavery as a great moral and 
political evil. He once said: "I tremble for my 
comitry wnen I remember that God is just." He 
treated the slaves on his large estate so kindly that 
they almost worshiped him. It is said that when 
he returned from his five years' absence as Minis- 
ter to France, his negroes were so overjoyed that 
they took him from the carriage and carried him 
into the house, laughing and crying, and otherwise 
expressing their joy because '' massa done got home 
again." 

When Washington became President, he made 
Jefferson a member of his cabinet as Secretary of 
State. Here he collided with Alexander Hamilton, 
the Secretary of the Treasury. The two were exact 
opposites in many ways, and could no more mix 
than oil and water. It required all of Washing- 
ton's tact to keep peace between them. " Each 
found the other so intolerable that he wished to 
resign that he might be freed from meeting him." 
At last Jeft'erson could stand it no longer. He 
resigned in January, 1794, and returned to his 
beloved farming at Monticello. 

Two years later he and John Adams were the 
candidates for the Presidency. Adams received 
seventy-one votes and Jeff'erson sixty-eight. As 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 141 

the law then stood, this made hiin Vice-Pi*esident. 
Adams was a Federalist, Jefferson a Republican. 
Therefore, it was not perhaps to be expected that 
they should aoree. Mr. Adanis, however, did not 
try. He simply ignored Jefferson in all political 
matters. At the next election, Jefferson and 
Adams were again the candidates for the Presi- 
dency. Jefferson was elected. The quick-tempered 
Adams was so nettled over the affair that he arose 
at daybreak, on the day of the inaugural, and set 
out in his coach for Massachusetts, refusing to wait 
and see his successor installed in office. In later 
years, however, he repented of his foolishness. 
Jefferson and he became reconciled and kept up 
a friendly correspondence to the end of their lives. 

As President, Jefferson was much beloved. His 
inauguration was observed as a national holiday 
throughout the country. Of course, this was 
distasteful to Jeff'erson, who hated pomp and cere- 
mony. A story is on record to the effect that he 
rode to the Capitol on horseback and hitched his 
horse to the fence, w^hile he went in, unattended, to 
take the oath of office. 

Whether it be true or not, we know that during 
his term of office Jefferson frowned upon all dis- 
play, and would have no honors shown to him that 



142 AMERICAN HEROES 

might not have been offered to him as a citizen. 

Jefferson chose James Madison, his most intimate 
friend at that time, for his Secretary of State. 
Congenial men made up the remainder of the 
cabinet. This ''happy family" worked together in 
peace and harmony throughout the two terms of 
Jefferson's presidency. Many important national 
events marked his administration. Chief of them all 
was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from 
France, in 1803, for fifteen millions of dollars. 
Eleven entire States and parts of four others have 
since been carved from this vast domain. 

Jeff'erson retired forever from public life at the 
close of his second term. '' From that time," says 
Daniel Webster, " Mr. Jefferson lived as becomes 
a wise man. Surrounded by aff'ectionate friends,* 
his ardor in the pursuit of knowledge undiminished; 
with uncommon health and unbroken spirits, he 
was able to enjoy largely the rational pleasures of 
life; and to partake of that public prosperity to 
which he had contributed so much. His kind- 
ness and hospitality ; the charm of his conversation ; 
the ease of his manners; and especially the full 
store of revolutionary incidents which he possessed, 
and which he knew when and how to dispense, 
rendered his abode attractive in a high degree to 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 143 

his admiring countrymen. His high pubHc and 
scientific character drew toward him every inteUi- 
gent and educated traveler from abroad." 

" The Sage of Monticello " died on the afternoon 
of July 4, 1826. A few hours afterward John 
Adams, too, breathed his last. Thus passed away, 
on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of 
Independence, the two men who had been the most 
instrumental in bringing it about. ''Their country 
is their monument; its independence their epitaph." 




ROBERT FULTON 



ROBERT FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 

In Revolutionary times and, indeed, for many 
years after, the people's easiest method of getting 
about, and of carrying their goods from one point 
to another, was by boats. There were but few 
roads, and these were sometimes almost impassable 
on account of ruts and mud. Breakdowns and up- 
sets were of everyday occurrence. Passengers had 
frequently to help the driver of the stage-coach 
pull the wheels out of the mud before a journey 
could be completed. Accidents by water were few 
and the going easier and swifter. Dutch sloops 
and schooners were used considerably on the larger 
streams in the East, and all kinds of small sail- 
boats and canoes were also in use. 

On the Western rivers the flatboat was the most 
familiar form of craft. It was merely a box, some 
fifty or more feet in length, and about sixteen feet 
wide, and was propelled by long poles. As it was 
used chiefly to carry produce, it was usually torn 
to pieces at the end of the journey, after its cargo 
of flour, pork, lumber, molasses, etc., had been sold. 

145 



146 AMERICAN HEROES 

Hundreds of these boats went down the Ohio and 
Mississippi Rivers every year, and even in this 
day an occasional one may be seen. 

The favorite passenger craft was the keelboat. 
It phed up and down the rivers with more or less 
regularity, being pushed up stream with long poles. 
Where the current was too strong for this, the boat- 
men went ashore and hauled the craft along by 
ropes. Small wonder, then, that one of the prob- 
lems of the day was to invent a boat which could 
move along with swiftness and ease, and which 
should not be dependent on the ever-varying wind 
for its speed. 

James Watt, a Scotchman, had so improved the 
steam-engine that people began to hope that steam 
might be utilized to work for man. Naturally the 
thoughts of many inventors turned toward it.* 
Why could not some sort of machinery be devised 
for applying the power of the steam-engine to the 
movement of boats? 

One ingenious Englishman tried to run a boat 
by making the engine push through the water a 
device shaped somewhat like a duck's foot. But it 
was not a success. In 1730 another Englishman, 
Dr. John Allen, tried to run a boat by taking in 
water through an opening in the bow of his boat, 



ROBERT FULTON 



147 



and then driving- it out at the stern with so much 
force as to push the boat forward. This, too, was 
a failure. In 1786 John Fitch, an American, 
built a steamboat and launched it on the Dela- 
ware. His boat was moved bv means of a row of 




FITCH'S STEAMBOAT 



engine-worked paddles, arranged along its sides. 
For more than three months it plied up and down 
the river, but it moved so slow^ly that few passen- 
gers cared to ride in it. 

Fitch grew ragged and poor, and at last gave 
up the trips. Three years later, another American. 
James Rumsey by name, built a steamboat : but, like 
Fitch's boat, it never became practicable. 



148 AMERICAN HEROES 

Time passed. One inventor after another ex- 
perimented with the steamboat and failed. People 
began to think that such a boat could not be built. 
But there were two Americans, over in Paris, who 
were not yet ready to give up. These were Chan- 
cellor Livingston, American Minister to France, 
and Robert Fulton, a young inventor. Both were 
much interested in steam navigation, and they 
formed a partnership for its promotion. Living- 
ston was to furnish money and advice, and Fulton 
was to do the work. 

Robert Fulton was born in Chester County, 
Pennsylvania, in 1765. His father was an L'ish 
tailor. Young Robert, like many other boys, did not 
care to learn his father's trade. Neither was he 
especially interested in books. He was a born 
inventor, and also had considerable talent as an 
artist. At the age of seventeen he was a miniature 
painter in Philadelphia, and succeeded so well that 
in four years' time he was able to buy a little farm 
for his mother. After seeing her comfortably set- 
tled, he sailed for Europe to study art under the 
direction of Benjamin West. 

But his inventive genius continually interfered 
with his studies. Every now and then he would 
abandon art and turn out some mechanical inven- 



ROBERT FULTON 



149 



tion. One was a submarine torpedo, which he tried 
in vain to persuade Napoleon to buy. After enter- 
ing into partnership with Livingston, he went over 
to England to see a steamboat which William 
Symington, a Scotchman, had invented. This 



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THE TRIAL TRIP OF THE CLERMONT, 1807 

steamboat had a side-wheel, and was fashioned 
after an idea which Fulton had already in mind. 
It could make five miles per hour. 

Young Fulton was certain that he could improve 
on Symington's model, and went back to France 
full of enthusiasm. The firm immediately built a 
boat which they launched on the river Seine ; but it 



150 AMERICAN HEROES 

broke in pieces when the engines were placed on 
board. FuUon proved his mettle by immediately 
building another boat. He was not a man to be dis- 
heartened by one failure. The second venture was 
more successful. He made a trial trip in sight 
of a large crowd of Parisians. The great Napoleon 
was deeply interested in the boat. '' It is capable 
of changing the face of the world ! " he exclaimed. 
Notwithstanding all this, the two Americans de- 
cided to return to their own country, where the need 
for steamboats was much greater. 

One of the first things to be done was to get 
the best engiite which could be built. Fulton imme- 
diately sent to James Watt for an engine, which 
was to be fashioned according to his own plans. 
While it was being made, he set about building 
a steamboat at New York. The Clermont was 
the name he gave his model. It was the first side- 
wheel steamboat built in America. It did not ap- 
peal to the people at large. They laughed at it and 
styled it "Fulton's Folly" ; but they assembled in 
large numbers when he was finally ready, one day 
in August, 1807, to watch it make a trial trip. It 
was an anxious moment to Fulton, as every one was 
sure he would fail; and, indeed, when the signal 
was given, the boat moved for a short distance. 



ROBERT FULTON 151 

then it stopped and became immovable. But Fulton 
hurried below and soon discovered the cause of 
the trouble. This being easily remedied, the boat 
went on. 

The Clcnuont made the distance from New York 
to Albany (150 miles) in thirty-two hours and came 
back successfully. Still many pronounced it a fail- 
ure, and declared that it could not be made to repeat 
the trip. But it did ; and not once, but many times. 
Then the usefulness of the invention was, at last, 
appreciated. In 1808, a line of steamboats went 
regularly up and down the Hudson, and others were 
put in operation in various parts of the country. 

At first the steamboat created terror and con- 
sternation all along its way. For in those days 
newspapers were scarce and news traveled slowly. 
Few knew of its existence until the horrid monster 
"marched by on the tides, lighting its path by the 
fires which it vomited." This was especially true 
in the sparsely settled country along the Ohio and 
the Mississippi, where many amusing stories are 
told of the fear it inspired. Some of the vessels 
were run ashore to escape the terrible creature. The 
passengers and crews on board ships which could 
not get out of the way hid themselves in the hold to 
escape the dreadful doom which threatened them. 




THE MAURETANIA, A TWENTIETH CENTURY ATLANTIC STEAMSHIP 



154. ._ AMERICAN HEROES 

Robert Fulton died in New York, in 1815. He 
lived long enough, however, to see the beginning 
of the prophecy which Napoleon had made concern- 
ing his invention. Hundreds of steamboats were 
already in use in our country alone. Today they 
are numbered by the thousands. Not just like Ful- 
ton's model, to be sure ; but built along the same gen- 
eral plan as that which he in turn had copied from 
Symington's invention. But neither man could ever 
in his wildest dreams have imagined the great 
ocean steamers and battleships that have grown out 
of their seemingly insignificant little boats. We give 
pictures of both so that you may judge for your- 
selves. In 1909 New York celebrated with a mag- 
nificent pageant the centennial of the first trip of 
the little Clermont, which was the real beginning 
of steam navigation, and the ter-centennial of the 
discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson. 




WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, THE HERO 
OF TIPPECANOE 

When "Mad Anthony" Wayne was engaged 
in defending the settlers in the Ohio Valley, there 
came to his quarters, one day, a gallant young offi- 
cer bearing a note of introduction from President 
Washington. This officer was William Henry 
Harrison. His father, Benjamin Harrison, was 
one of the signers of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, and a close friend of Washington. The 
young man had given up the study of medicine to 
fight the Indians, and Washington urged Wayne 
to make him useful. This the General promptly 
did by placing him on his staff. 

No better opening could have been secured for 
a young man who desired to learn the principles 
of military tactics, and most carefully did he study 
the methods of '' the chief who never sleeps." There 
were many opportunities that came to prove his 
mettle, and General Wayne soon found that he could 
depend upon his young aide, even in the face of 
overwhelming difficulties. Obstacles seemed to melt 

155 



156 AMERICAN HEROES 

before him, and he had the power of firing his men 
with his own courage and enthusiasm. 

In 1 80 1, wdien the new territory of Indiana was 
formed, embracing the coimtry now comprised by 
the States of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, 
Harrison w^as made Governor because of his wide 
knowledge of Indians and frontier life generally, 
for it w^as felt that, sooner or later, trouble would 
again arise with the Indians. 

The position was a difficult one, and for that 
reason, Harrison, w^ho was anxious to rise to the 
head of his profession, accepted it all the more 
eagerly. Almost immediately he found himself 
pitted against a young Shawnee warrior called 
Tecumseh. This young savage had fought against 
Wayne in 1794. He was much opposed to the red 
men selling their lands, and maintained that no tribe 
had a right to sell without the consent of the other 
tribes. He was not a born chief, but he went here 
and there, airing his views, until he had quite a band 
of followers. Tecumseh was aided in his efforts to 
stir up the savages by his brother, an Indian prophet 
known as "The Open Door," who threatened the 
tribes with all sorts of evil if they did not join in 
the cause. 

In 18 10 Governor Harrison made a treatv at 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 157 

Fort Wayne by which the Indians ceded to the 
United States a tract of about 3,000,000 acres of 
land along the upper Wabash. Some of this land 
included territory on which Tecumseh's Indians had 
settled, although they had no right to do so. The 
Shawnee chief was greatly enraged, and threatened 
to kill the Indians who had made the treaty. He 
immediately took to the warpath, and gathered 
about him enough Indians to endanger the whole 
Northwest. Still Governor Harrison hoped to 
settle the difficulty without war. To this end he 
invited Tecumseh and his leading chiefs to council 
with him at A^incennes. They accepted. But, when 
the white chief asked them to be seated upon the 
veranda of his home, Tecumseh refused. He said 
he preferred to have the council held in the grove, 
near at hand. In the discussion that followed 
Tecumseh grew very angry, and some of his war- 
riors sprang to their feet, tomahawks in liand. 
Governor Harrison promptly drew his sword, and 
others of his party cjuickly presented arms of vari- 
ous kinds. They had feared treachery; and in a 
twinkling the soldiers bore down upon the Indians, 
but Harrison stopped them. He then told Tecum- 
seh there was no use in trying to discuss things 
with an angry man, and bade him leave. 



158 AMERICAN HEROES 

The next day Tecumseh sent a messenger to the 
Governor, saying that he was ready to talk with 
him at length, and to come to a friendly settlement 
if possible. This was what Harrison wanted. 
With only one companion, he went to the chief's 
tent. They were courteously received, and Harri- 
son did his best to put the matter favorably before 
Tecumseh; but he could get no satisfaction, and 
was finally convinced that he was but wasting time. 

The red chief immediately started southward to 
complete his plans for a general raid on the whites. 
Friendly Indians brought word of this to Governor 
Harrison, who thought, if there must be war, that 
he would rather choose the time and place. 

A large number of Indians had collected at the 
Indian village of Tippecanoe, which was Tecum- 
seh's home. "The Open Door" w^as in command, 
as the great red chief had not yet returned from 
his mission to the south, and here Harrison deter- 
mined to attack without loss of time. Knowing that 
the Indians would try to ambush him if they sus- 
pected his intentions, he veiled his plans most care- 
fully. Under cover of a hunting expedition, he 
advanced his forces up the opposite side of the 
Wabash almost to Tippecanoe. Here a messenger 
from the prophet came to them, November 6, 1811, 



160 AMERICAN HEROES 

saying that the Indians were ready to make peace. 

Harrison doubted this greatly. He told his men 
to hold themselves in readiness for attack at any 
moment. All that night the soldiers lay on their 
arms. About four o'clock a sentinel fired at a 
skulking Indian, and the war-whoop resounded on 
every hand. Elarrison immediately ordered the 
camp-fires to be put out, and red men and white 
fought fiercely hand-to-hand in the darkness. Day- 
light saw many a painted savage stretched upon the 
ground beside his fallen foe. Moreover, Harrison's 
men had succeeded in scattering the savages in 
every direction, and in burning the village of Tip- 
pecanoe. For the time being all hope of carrying 
out Tecumseh's plan of driving the white people 
back over the Alleghanies was at an end. But 
neither Tecumseh nor his brother despaired. They 
were unhurt and had, in no wise, lost their hold 
upon their red brothers. 

At this time England and France were engaged 
in a deadly struggle, and our American ships had 
been doing a fine business in carrying supplies to 
the two nations; but soon England tried to pre- 
vent the Americans from going to France, and 
France was just as eager to keep them out of Eng- 
land. American ships were captured and plun- 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 161 

dered, and all sorts of trouble arose. To make 
matters worse, England began to overhaul our ves- 
sels on the high seas, and to carry away men to man 
her w^arships. Thus our foreign trade was well- 
nigh ruined and our liberty threatened. The elec- 
tions of iSio brought into Congress many men who 
were in favor of going to war with England to pro- 
tect our commerce, and so on June i8, t8t2, war 
w^as formally declared by Congress. 

The Americans planned to invade Canada and 
conquer it before troops could arrive from Eng- 
land. To this end, WilHam Hull, the Governor of 
Michigan Territory, was placed in command of the 
troops who were to invade Canada. But he proved 
entirely unfit for the trust. He marched bravely 
over the Canadian line, but made no effort to seize 
a British military post near by ; and when news came 
that England had fortified Fort Mackinac, he with- 
drew to Detroit. Later, when the British general. 
Brock, crossed into Michigan he surrendered not 
only Detroit, but his army and the w^iole Territory 
of Michigan, without a fight. 

Hull's shameful conduct drove the people of the 
West into a frenzy of anger. They quickly volun- 
teered to form an army for the recapture of 
Detroit. The command was iriven to General 



162 AMERICAN HEROES 

Winchester, a Revolutionary officer. But the sol- 
diers wanted General Harrison, and finally went 
so far as to refuse to follow any other leader. 
Under these circumstances, the President was 
forced to give the command to Harrison, while 
General Winchester was placed second. 

Scarcely had they begun to drill the troops when 
word came that Tecumseh and his followers had 
formed an alliance with the English. The com- 
bined forces had fallen upon the defenseless village 
of Frenchtown, in Michigan, on the River Raisin. 
General Winchester at once hurried forward to 
their relief. He was met by a large body of Eng- 
lish and Indians, under the brutal General Proctor, 
in January, 1813. Winchester's men were so far 
outnumbered that he was forced to surrender under 
promise of protection. No sooner had he done so, 
however, than the Indians fell upon the prisoners 
with their tomahawks. As soon as Tecumseh 
learned what was going on he rushed to the rescue 
and stopped the murderous work. 

General Harrison promptly hurried his forces 
into Fort Meigs. Here Proctor and Tecumseh, 
with a superior force, attacked him in May. But 
the garrison, sheltered behind the great earthworks, 
beat them off. Tecumseh was furiously angry. 



164 AMERICAN HEROES 

''' Harrison is a miserable ground-hog," he declared. 
'' He will not come out into the open and fight like 
a man ! " Harrison, however, knew he could not 
hope for victory under such heavy odds, so he 
patiently bided his time. In July, the Indians fell 
upon him again in increased numbers, and again he 
repelled them. Stung with fury, a part of Proctor's 
command fell desperately upon the stockade at Fort 
Stephenson. This was commanded by the brave 
young Kentuckian, Major Croghan, who made a 
most brilliant defense and succeeded in holding 
the fort. 

The cry '' On to Canada ! " now became strong 
indeed. But General Harrison was not yet ready. 
He knew that an invasion would not succeed until 
our country controlled the Great Lakes. So he 
waited to hear from Commodore Perry. That gal- 
lant young officer, with a gang of ship carpenters, 
had been hard at work since early the previous win- 
ter cutting down trees and using the green timber to 
construct a fleet with which he hoped to defeat the 
British squadron. On the first day of September 
word came that Perry had set sail with nine 
vessels. Fourteen days later General Harrison 
was overjoyed to receive Perry's famous dispatch : 
"We have met the enemy, and they are ours." 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 165 

The way into Canada \vas now open. Harrison 
set out at once and soon had his army drawn up 
on the shore of Lake Erie. LI ere I^erry met him 
and quickly helped to transport the troops to the 
Canadian side near Maiden. This was the head- 
quarters of Proctor and Tecumseh. Llarrison 
marched upon them immediately, hut when he 
reached the fort he found only smouldering ruins. 
Proctor had set fire to it and fled in deadly terror 
of the vengeance of the men whose only watchword 
was '' Remember the River Raisin." 

From one point to another Harrison chased the 
fleeing forces until, at last, he forced them to make 
a stand on the banks of the River Thames. Here, 
under cover of a wood, they prepared to fight in 
Indian fashion. Colonel Richard Johnson and his 
famous band of Kentuckians opened the assault. 
These men were used to riding pell-mell through the 
forest, with rifles in hand. It was impossil)le for 
the British to withstand their impetuous onslaught. 
The line broke, and their cowardly commander fled 
in haste for his life. The brave Tecumseh fell at his 
post and the howling savages became panic-stricken. 
The British straightway threw down their arms, 
and the whole force surrendered, October 5, 1813. 

Shortly after this battle Llarrison left the army, 



166 



AMERICAN HEROES 



and Generals Winfield Scott and Andrew Jackson 
finished the work which Harrison had begun. 

For a time various important civil offices occupied 
Harrison's time, but he finally retired to his farm 




THE DEATH OF TECUMSEH 



at North Bend, Ohio. Here, in 1840, he received 
the nomination for President of the United States 
on the Whig ticket. Party feeling in those days ran 
very high, and the Harrison campaign was one of 
the most exciting in the history of the country. The 
Democrats ridiculed their opponents' candidate for 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 167 

his poverty and Western surroundings, and a cer- 
tain newspaper declared that Harrison would be 
more at home " in a log cabin, drinking hard cider 
and skinning coons, than living in the White House 
as President/' 

This furnished the cue for the Whicrs. Thev 
instantly made the log cabin the emblem of their 
party. All over the country log cabins (erected 
at some cross-road, village common, or vacant city 
lot) became the Whig headquarters. On the door 
was a coon skin, a leather latchstring hung out as 
a sign of hospitality, and beside the door stood a 
barrel of hard cider. Every Whig shouted for 
"Tippecanoe and Tyler too," and knew by heart 
all the songs in the famous Log Cabin Songster. 
Immense mass meetings were held. Weeks were 
spent in getting ready for them. In the West, 
where railroads were few, the people came in cov- 
ered wagons with provisions, and camped on the 
ground days before the meeting. At a monster 
meeting held at Dayton, Ohio, 100,000 people were 
present, covering ten acres of ground.''' 

Of course, Harrison was triumphantly elected. 
He was the people's favorite, as had been plainly 
shown. They had not forgotten the great service 
he had rendered the countrv. He took the oath of 



168 AMERICAN HEROES 

office March 4, 1841 ; but his career as President 
was short, for to the consternation and sorrow of 
the country, he died one month from the day of his 
inauguration. He was succeeded by Vice-President 
Tyler, whose administration greatly disappointed 
the admirers of General Harrison. 




ANDREW JACKSON 



ANDREW JACKSON, THE HERO OF 
NEW ORLEANS 

"Here comes little Andy Jackson; let's have 
some fun, boys!" cried a big, freckle- faced lad, 
with a sly wink at his companions. "Hi, Andy! 
How's your nerve? Can you hit that pan on the 
fence?" 

" Steady as steel ; hand her over," answered the 
little chap, and reached a grimy hand for the heavy 
gun. He took careful aim. Bang! A yell went 
up from the boys, and the little marksman went 
down in a heap. The gun was the hardest 
" kicker " within fifty miles of the Carolina border, 
and many a huge joke had it helped to perpetrate. 
But this time there was no sport. 

In a tw^inkling Andy had scrambled to his feet. 
His Irish blue eyes shot fire, and his red hair 
fairly stood on end, as he jerked the heavy gun into 
position, and yelled furiously : " Death to the boy 
that dares to laugh!" 

Apologies were forthcoming and overtures for 
peace extended at once. Soon all were playing 

169 



170 AMERICAN HEROES 

merrily again, but Andy's comrades never again 
attempted sport at his expense. 

When the Revohitionary War began, Andy was 
a lad of thirteen.* He longed, with all his fiery 
little soul, to take part in the struggle; but he was 
too young to enlist. Every moment he could spare 
that was not employed in fighting sham battles 
with his comrades was spent at the blacksmith shop 
hammering out weapons of various kinds. In the 
South the conflict was intensely bitter, neighbor 
often battling with neighbor. Andy managed to 
take part in several of these skirmishes. 

On one occasion he and his brother joined an 
outlying picket post. The force was captured and 
the boys sent in, along with the other prisoners. 
The British Colonel took a fancy to Andy and de- 
cided to make him his page. He ordered the little 
chap to clean his boots. Andy indignantly refused 
and got a severe sword cut on his head for his 
impudence. His brother was treated in the same 
way. Then the two wounded lads were thrown 
into a wretched prison, where smallpox was raging. 
They caught the disease, and no doubt would have 
died had not their mother succeeded in getting them 
exchanged, and in nursing them back to health. 

Years went by. ''Little Andy" grew into an 



• ANDREW JACKSON 171 

athletic young giant. At the age of eighteen, hav- 
ing acquired a fair common school education, he 
began the study of law in the village of Salisbury. 
North Carolina was in the path of the settlers cross- 
ing the mountains to make homes in the rich lands 
to the westward. Soon the young law student 
caught the fever of emigration, and followed in the 
wake of the home seekers. He settled in Nashville, 
Tennessee, and began the practice of law. Here, 
in this rough new country disputes were often set- 
tled by bullet or cold steel, and it took a great deal 
of courage to practice law. But young Jackson 
was equal to every emergency. He was very brave, 
and so quick-tempered that he was feared by all 
who knew him. 

Though a rough man, Jackson was honest and 
true in his own way. He was recognized as an 
able lawyer and rose to the distinction of Judge of 
the Su|)reme Court of Tennessee. Later he became 
a member of the United States Senate. When the 
second war with England broke out, in 1812, he 
was made commander of a force of Tennessee 
volunteers sent to defend New Orleans. They 
marched as far as Natchez. Here an order reached 
Jackson to disband his troops at once, as they were 
not needed. The fiery young General vowed he 



172 AMERICAN HEROES 

would do no such thing. "By the Eternal!" he 
cried, ''if the United States cannot afford to buy 
food for my men and disband them decently, I can 
and will." 

Accordingly he pledged his own property for 
supplies for his army, and marched them back to 
Tennessee. His spirit awoke the admiration of the 
officials at Washington, who had given the order 
unthinkingly, and they set him down as a man to 
be called upon in an emergency. His troops loved 
and honored him and respectfully dubbed him '' Old 
Hickory," because in his hardness, toughness, and 
strength he reminded them of the tall, stately 
hickories of the forest. 

In the autumn of 1812, when Tecumseh made 
his memorable trip into the Southwest, striving to 
stir up the Indians, he labored long and valiantly 
with the half-breed chief of the Creeks. This man 
was known to the whites as Wethers ford, but his 
Indian followers called him Red Eagle. Tecumseh 
could not make him promise to make war on the 
whites, and he vowed to bring a terrible vengeance 
upon his tribe. Shortly afterward a comet ap- 
peared. Then a few weeks later a slight earth- 
quake occurred. The Creeks felt assured that 
Tecumseh had indeed turned the hand of the Great 



ANDREW JACKSON 173 

Spirit against thcni, and they resolved to take up 
the hatehet at onee. lliey appealed to their Spanish 
neighbors at Pensacola, and through them succeeded 
in getting arms from the British. The white 
people of the surrounding country had fled for pro- 
tection to Fort Minims, not far from Mobile. Here 
the Creeks attacked them, in August, 1813, and 
the entire company of four hundred men, women, 
and children were slain. 

A cry of horror went up all over the South. Gen- 
eral Jackson, though ill in bed at the time with a 
painful wound, hurriedly marched into the wilder- 
ness to attack the savages. For a few days all 
went well. Then the hastily collected supplies gave 
out and the hungry soldiers rebelled. Half the 
men laid down their arms and turned homeward. 
But "Old Hickory" was too much for them. He 
fell upOn them with the remaining half of his army 
and forced them to return. 

Providentially the matter of supplies was soon 
solved, and Jackson was able to do good work with 
his wild mountaineers. In March, 18 14, he fell 
upon a strongly fortified band of Creeks at Horse- 
shoe Bend, on the Tallapoosa River. A terrible 
fight ensued. Neither Red Eagle''' nor Old Hickory 
would surrender. But the odds were too heavy. 



174 AMERICAN HEROES 

The whites outnumbered the redmen, and soon the 
forest was dyed with the blood of the fallen sav- 
ages. At length, most of the surviving Indians 
surrendered, and ceded a large part of their terri- 
tory to the United States. Some, however, fled 
into Florida, which at that time belonged to Spain. 

Word now came that a British force had landed 
at Pensacola and fortified themselves there, after 
being heavily reinforced by Florida Indians. Jack- 
son was so ill that he could scarcely sit in the sad- 
dle, yet his fiery spirit was not subdued. '' Zounds ! " 
he cried. '' Do those black-hearted Spanish and 
white-livered Seminoles think that they are going 
to give further aid to the enemies of our country? 
No, by the Eternal ! Not if my name is ' Old Hick- 
ory ' ! " His angry enthusiasm electrified his troops, 
as always, and they were soon hastening southward 
by enforced marches. But it was November be- 
fore they reached Pensacola, which soon fell before 
their resistless onslaught. 

He was now called upon to hasten to the defense 
of New Orleans, as a fleet of fifty ships, carrying- 
ten thousand of England's best fighting men, had 
just sailed from Jamaica for that point. England 
expected to take this far outlying post with the 
greatest ease. She would then have control of the 



ANDREW JACKSON 



175 



Mississippi River and could soon have the Amer- 
ican nation at her mercy. 

The ships came to anchor off Lake Borgne, about 
twenty miles from New Orleans, on December 9, 
1814, in the midst of a driving storm. Twelve 




Fiom an old print 



JACKSON'S HEADQUARTERS AT NEW ORLEANS 

hundred marines at once engaged the attention of 
the little fleet of five gunboats which guarded Lake 
Pontchartrain. In the fierce hand-to-hand fight 
which followed, three hundred British were killed 
and wounded. As the Americans had onlv two hun- 



176 AMERICAN HEROES 

clrecl men, they could not long hold out against such 
heavy odds. The commander was severely wounded 
and his gunboats captured. 

In the meantime all was excitement in the Creole 
City. Old Hickory had arrived a short time before 
and w^as busy creating an army out of such ma- 
terials as he could find. It w^as hard work, for New 
Orleans was foreign in character, and had little 
in common with our people except a bitter hatred 
for the English. But the people were anxious to aid 
Jackson, and the force he raised was a motley 
crowd. "He formed companies of free colored 
men, and other companies of convicts taken from 
the prisons, and enlisted all the merchants and their 
clerks who were fit to fight." He even called in 
Lafitte, popularly known as the "Pirate of the 
Gulf," and his crew. " The streets resounded with 
Yankee Doodle and the Marseillaise, sung in Eng- 
lish, French, and Spanish." 

Jackson was encouraged by the arrival of Colonel 
Coffee with some three hundred Tennessee volun- 
teers, whose mettle he had himself tested in the 
furious war with the Creeks. Colonel Carroll and 
his famous riflemen from Nashville also floated 
down the river in flatboats and marched into the 
city on the same day that the British arrived. Clad 



ANDREW JACKSOX 177 

in coonskin caps, l)uckskin shirts, and fringed leg- 
gins, with their long rifles slung over their shoul- 
ders and hunting-knives in their belts, these tall 
gaunt fellows carried a sense of security wherever 
they went. Old Hickory felt it, and determined 
upon instant action. 

That evening, while the British were eating their 
supper, they were surprised at the appearance of 
a strange vessel, which dropped quietly down the 
river and anchored within musket shot. A few 
inquiring shots were hurled at her. The answer 
was a deep, hoarse voice: '' Now% give it to them, 
boys, for the honor of America ! " and shot and 
shell rained on every hand. One hundred men w^ere 
killed or disabled in less than ten minutes. The 
British hastily trampled oilt their camp-fires, and 
fled behind the levee for shelter. 

Shortly afterward Jackson charged upon them, 
and the surprise was complete. For more than two 
hours the darkness was rife with deadly hand-to- 
hand fights between the British bayonets and the 
American hunting-knives. The struggle was ended 
by a thick fog which crept up from the river, 
enshrouding friend and foe alike. 

New Orleans was now safe from immediate 
attack. Tackson had ^-aincd what he desired — 



178 AMERICAN HEROES 

time to throw up intrenchnients and thus make his 
position secure. The British had lost more than 
five hundred in killed and wounded, and been filled 
with a little whole-souled respect for the Americans. 
Still, they did not anticipate defeat, and when Sir 
Edward Pakenham arrived, on Christmas morning, 
they spent the day in fitting celebration. 

Early the next morning Pakenham was at work 
mounting cannon in a redoubt''' on the bank of the 
river. As soon as his guns were in position he 
began to throw red-hot shells at the two war vessels 
on the Mississippi. The little Carolina, which had 
given the British such a warm reception on the 
night of their arrival, soon blew up. The other 
vessel was towed out of range and escaped. 

The following day Pakenham advanced upon the 
city. About three miles out he came upon an 
advance guard of the Americans and was driven 
back by a brisk fire. Nothing more w^as attempted 
until shortly after midnight on New Year's morn- 
ing, when Pakenham, under the cover of darkness, 
advanced his men to within three hundred yards 
of Jackson's first intrenchnients. The morning was 
foggy, and the Americans, behind their barricade 
of cotton bales, knew nothing of the presence of 
the enemy until about ten o'clock, when a slight 



180 AMERICAN HEROES 

breeze lifted the mist. There, before their aston- 
ished gaze, frowned the English cannon. At the 
same moment the guns roared and the cotton bales 
caught fire. 

But it took a good deal to dismay those staunch 
men of the woods. In a twinkling, the Tennessee 
riflemen were cracking away with a murderous 
fire ; the cannon were returning shells with interest ; 
the Louisiana had drawn in at close range and was 
raking Pakenham's defense of sugar hogsheads into 
a thousand pieces. Altogether, the British were 
getting a warm reception — so warm, indeed, that 
after a few moments Pakenham fell back to safer 
quarters. For sixty hours Jackson made it so lively 
for the invaders that they had opportunity for 
neither food nor rest. 

Pakenham drew off still farther and sat down 
to consider the matter. Jackson improved the time 
by further strengthening his intrenchments. " He 
had redoubts thrown up, even to the city itself. 
The main line of defense, over which not a single 
British soldier passed, except as a prisoner, was a 
mud bank about a mile and a half long. In front 
of it w^as a ditch — or half-choked canal — which 
ran from the river to an impassable cypress swamp 
on the left wing."^ 



ANDREW JACKSON 181 

Finally the British General made up his mind to 
storm the Americans on both sides of the river at 
once. All night long, Saturday, January 7, he spent 
in preparing for the conflict. Jackson, on the other 
hand, was ready. Shortly after midnight, however, 
he mounted his horse and rode from post to post, 
making sure that every man was in his place and 
everything in readiness for the fray. 

Early morning (January 8) showed the long 
line of red-coated veterans in readiness. Imme- 
diately the bugle sounded and the line advanced. 
Jackson's riflemen watched them stolidly; only the 
cannon impeded their progress. But each furious 
thunder mowed a long lane through the advancing 
battalions. On they came on the double-quick, the 
strongest side making for Jackson's left wing, which 
a deserter had told them was the w^eakest spot in 
the defenses. So it was, so far as earthworks were 
concerned; but it was just here that General Jack- 
son had placed Carroll and his deadly riflemen. 
Quietly the men waited until the advancing column 
had covered nearly three-fourths of the distance. 
Then Colonel Carroll's voice rang out in one quick, 
clear command, ''Fire!" 

The result was almost a miracle. A sheet of 
flame burst from the earthworks, and not a rifle 



182 AMERICAN HEROES 

• 

cracked in vain. In addition to this, '' an old thirty- 
two-pounder had been loaded to the muzzle with 
musket balls, the first volley of which killed or 
wounded two hundred of the enemy." It was more 
than flesh and blood could endure. The advancing 
line faltered, stopped, broke, and ran in confusion. 

General Pakenham rushed to the rescue with 
eight hundred Highlanders, the very flower of the 
army. An attempt was made to rush across the 
ditch, and a few men were successful, but Death 
met them the moment their heads showed on the 
other side. From the mud earthwork belched forth 
a continuous sheet of flame as the grim riflemen 
delivered their death-dealing volume. Again the 
proud column gave way. 

*' Forward, men, forward ! " cried the brave 
Pakenham. '' Don't give way ! The day is ours ! " 

But the day was not theirs, and the men knew 
it, though they gallantly responded to the call of 
their chief. A rifle ball shattered Pakenham's leg;" 
another killed his horse; and, finally, a third laid 
him low in the dust. All about him were strewn 
the brilliantly uniformed of^cers. They were easy 
marks for the sharpshooters. The Highlanders, 
too proud to run, stormed the ditch until but few 
of their number were left. These dauntless soldiers 



ANDREW JACKSUX 



183 



then slowly retired with their faees toward the foe. 
The Americans were safe behind their breast- 
works. The flag- flew gayly; the band pla}ed a 
rousing tune; and the guns of death roared hid- 
eously. In twenty-five minutes all w'as over. The 




THE HERMITAGE 



British retreated out of harnvs way, and the Battle 
of New Orleans went down in history as one of 
the most amazing conflicts ever fought. The 
Americans had eight killed and fourteen wounded ; 
the British loss was seven hundred killed; fourteen 
hundred wounded; and five hundred prisoners! 



184 AMERICAN HEROES 

But the sad part of it all was that the battle was 
unnecessary. Peace had been declared about two 
weeks before. Had there been steam vessels or 
telegraphs in 1815, the life of many a brave man 
would have been saved. For a week and more the 
two armies glared at each other from the safety 
of their intrenchments. Finally, General Lambert 
skillfully retreated to his ships, and soon afterward 
the fleet sailed for England. 

So ended the siege of New Orleans and the 
hopes of the British for gaining a foothold on 
United States territory. People could not say 
enough in praise of " Old Hickory." He became 
*' the darling of his country." Honors fell upon him 
thick and fast. Even to this day his memory is 
revered in the Creole city, where the Battle of New 
Orleans is still celebrated. 

In 181 7, trouble arose with the Creeks and Semi- 
noles in Florida, and General Jackson was sent 
down to settle the disturbance. This he did in his 
usual fiery fashion. Utterly disregarding the fact 
that the Indians were on Spanish soil, he rushed 
over the border, took the villages of vSt. Marks and 
Pensacola, reduced the Indians to a peaceable con- 
dition, and hanged two English traders as spies! 
This was a serious matter, and for a time Congress 



AXI)RI-:\V JACKSOX 185 

fairly Ireniblccl. lni[)(,)rlaiU treaties \\ere then under 
way with Spain and Great Britain, and they feared 
that his acts would stop them. But happily nothini; 
came of the affair. In 1819, when Florida was pur- 
chased from Spain, Jackson was sent down to take 
possession of the country. 

Jackson was a candidate for the Presidency in 
1824. There were three other candidates in the 
field. None of them received a majority of votes, 
and the choice was made by the House of Repre- 
sentatives. John Ouincy Adams was elected. Jack- 
son's friends were bitterly disappointed. They 
accused Adams of having a secret understanding 
with Henry Clay, w4io was Speaker of the House. 
There was no proof that such bargain had been 
made, but no Jackson follower could be convinced 
of it. A strong party rose in his favor. They 
called themselves *' Jackson men" or Democratic 
Republicans, and at once nominated Jackson for 
the next President. . 

Up to this time the Presidents had all been 
chosen from the aristocracy.''' But now a cry rose 
all over the country for a President who was a 
man of the people. Jackson was such a man ; rough 
in speech and ])lain in manner, but with many (iuali- 
ties to commend him to the public. He became the 



186 AMERICAN HEROES 

people's candidate and was elected, in 1828, by an 
overwhelming majority. 

In the Presidential chair "Old Hickory" ruled 
with a strong hand. He was the first President to 
put out of office those who had voted against him, 
and to appoint his own friends in their places. He 
managed affairs with other nations in such a man- 
ner as to make the United States greatly respected 
abroad. He served two terms, and at the close of 
his administration was still so popular with his 
party that he was able to dictate the choice of his 
successor. This was his friend and Secretary of 
State — Martin Van Buren. 

Jackson was the last President who had had any 
part in the Revolution. He died at The Hermitage, 
his home near Nashville, in 1854. "He was a man 
of iron will and fierce passions ; obstinate but honest 
in his opinions, and one of the ablest soldiers 
America has ever produced." 




PROFESSOR SAMUEL F. MORSE 



SAMUEL MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH 

Can you imai:^"inc what ihc world was like before 
Benjamin Franklin unlocked the doors to the world 
of electricity with the key of his own house door, 
a silk kite, and a piece of hemp string? Then no 
swift wire messengers of thought encircled the 
giobe. News traveled slowly. It sometimes took 
weeks and wxeks to get a letter or a message from 
even one part of our own country to another, to 
say nothing of crossing the ocean and journeying 
into foreign lands. The introduction of the loco- 
motive into this country, in 1829, was a great boon 
to new^s distribution, but it was the invention of 
the telegraph, in 1837, which carried news with the 
Hghtning\s rapidity, that really revolutionized the 
world. 

This marvelous invention was the work of 
Samuel Finley Breese Morse, and is a monument 
of his perseverance and courage, of his industry 
and self-denial. Often its struggling author went 
without bread and meat, to buy ware and chemicals 
for his exj^criments. He worked early and late, 

187 



l^S AMERICAN HEROES 

and never for one moment gave up hope of suc- 
cess, even when certain defeat seemed to stare him 
in the face. 

Like all men who have achieved greatness, 
Samuel Morse had a studious childhood and youth. 
He was born in Charleston, Mass., in 1791. When 
he was four years old he was sent to school to an 
old lady who was lame and not able to leave her 
chair. She managed her scholars with a long rattan 
stick. Little Samuel was very apt at making pic- 
tures, and often drew caricatures of the old dame 
and his schoolmates when he should have been 
about the tasks set for him; consequently the cane 
often flourished in his direction. But, fortunately, 
it did not break up his love for drawing. 

As he grew older he made up his mind to go to 
college. He studied hard and finally managed 
to enter Yale College. From the very first he took 
a deep interest in experiments in electricity, but he 
could ill afford to buy material for private experi- 
ments. He had to pay his own way, and was often 
much exercised how to earn enough to purchase the 
necessaries of life. His early talent for drawing 
and painting stood him in good stead during 
this time. In those days there were no photogra- 
phers. When people wanted pictures of themselves 



SAMUEL MORSE 180 

they had U) have ihem i)aiiUed. This was usually 
done on ivory. Young Morse was most skillful at 
such work, and in this w^ay earned many an honest 
dollar. 

He became absorbed in the w^ork and, shortly 
after leaving college, w^ent to Europe to study art, 
where he soon acquired no little fame as an histor- 
ical and portrait painter. But fame did not bring 
him riches. He returned to America at the end of 
four years as poor as when he left, and began seri- 
ously to think of turning his talents to some other 
purpose. 

Like Fulton, he had considerable inventive genius 
and, as a lad, had made many mechanical toys and 
useful contrivances for his home; but none of them 
had any money value. He now interested his 
brother in the invention of a pump. But the i)ump 
not proving a success, young Morse was forced to 
give it up and travel from town to town painting- 
portraits for a living. 

By and by he scraped up money enough to go 
abroad again. Here he lived, chiefly in Paris, until 
he had passed his forty-first year. Then he sailed 
for America once more. One evening, in the cabin 
of the ship, something was said about electricity. 
One of the gentlemen told of an interesting 



190 AMERICAN HEROES 

experiment which he had seen performed in Paris 
recently. Electricity had been sent instantaneously 
through a great length of wire arranged in circles 
about a room. 

The incident appealed instantly to ]\Iorse's in- 
ventive genius. '' If such a thing Avere possible," 
he asked himself, ''why could not messages be sent 
long distances by means of electricity?" He 
retired to his bunk and at once began to plan a 
telegraph. But you may be sure it was not all 
done that evening. He made many drawings before 
he evolved a plan which seemed practical. 

The idea on which he worked was not a new one. 
Since Volta had discovered that two different 
metals, when joined together in contact with acid 
water and separated from other substances, pro- 
duced a current of electricity which would travel 
any distance, so long as the circuit was not broken, 
scientists had thought it might be possible to use 
this cvu'rent for making signals at a distance. Yet 
there w^as always the difficulty of how to make the 
signs at the other end. 

Morse saw at once that an operator, by depressing 
and raising a button at his end of the wire, might 
alternately break and complete the electric circuit 
in such a manner as to make it instantly perceived 



SAMUEL MORSE 191 

at the other end of the wire. The number and 
length of these interruptions of the circuit would 
stand for the different letters of the alphabet. He, 
therefore, devoted his time to planning a machine 
which should record the telegraphic alphabet on 
paper tapes. He also experimented on making 
batteries of various kinds. 

But all this took time and money. Morse had 
little of either to spare for experiments. He told 
his brothers about his invention, and they good- 
naturedly gave him a room for a studio, though 
they had little faith in his inventive genius. 
Morse went on painting portraits and teaching 
drawing, using the time when most men wevt sleep- 
ing, and all the other precious moments which he 
could hoard, for the perfection of his scheme. 

Finally, in 1835, Morse was made Professor of 
Fine Arts in the University of the City of New 
York. Later he became President of the New York 
National Academy of Design — an office which he 
held for many years. But these positions of honor 
brought him little money. He was still too poor to 
carry out his plans. He took one of his brother 
professors into partnership, but their combined 
resources proved insufficient to perfect their ma- 
chine and bring it before the public in any sort of 



192 AMERICAN HEROES 

practical test. Both were convinced of its value, 
however, and refused to let circumstances dis- 
courage them. 

One day, when they were exhibiting their inven- 
tion to a party of friends, by means of seventeen 
hundred feet of wire stretched back and forth 
across the room, a student named Alfred Vail hap- 
pened in. He was the son of Judge Vail, a wealthy 
mill-owner. The young man had spent some years 
in his father's shops, and was a far better mechanic 
than either Morse or Gale. His quick eye imme- 
diately took in the details of the scheme, and he was 
filled with enthusiasm. 

"There is no reason why it should not work!" 
he exclaimed heartily. "Of course, you mean to 
try it out on a large scale?" 

''We do if we can get the money," answered 
Professor ]\Iorse. 

''Money?" cried Vail, who was not accustomed 
to stop for want of that commodity. ''Money? 
Will you take me into partnership if I furnish the 
funds necessary to carry out your plans ? " 

" Yes," agreed Morse and Gale, almost in one 
breath. 

"Very well," said Vail; "tell me just what you 
hope to do." 



SAMUEL MORSE 



193 



For a lono- lime they talked and planned; then 
yonn^- Wail rushed off to interest his father. The 
old Indite was decidedly doubtful, but he finally 




THE MORSE INSTRUMENT FOR SENDING MESSAGES 

promised to advance two thousand dollars for the 
making of a perfect telegraph. 

" But, mind you, not one cent more w^ill I give ! " 
he exclaimed, resolutelv. " If it is a success, vou 



a. 



^ 



^ ^ 



V 



?r 






yC{^ 



f / 



THE MORSE TELEGRAPHIC ALPHABET 



can put the matter before Congress. They are 
interested in public improvement, and ought to fur- 



194 AMERICAN HEROES 

nish the money to build the first Hue. If it fails, 
you will have been provided with a season's amuse- 
ment, and it would cost about that much, anyway! " 

So Judge Vail washed his hands of the matter; 
but his son was well satisfied. He fitted up a work- 
shop in one of the factory rooms at Speedwell, N. J., 
near his own home. Here, with the help of a lad 
fifteen years old, whom he took from the factory, 
he worked for many months behind locked doors; 
sometimes so absorbed that the day passed into 
night and came again wathout his leaving the shop. 
He made several improvements in Morse's machine. 
The Professor had planned a series of zigzag marks 
for the alphabet. Vail made the machine write in 
dots and dashes, and composed the telegraphic 
alphabet as shown on page 193. 

While Vail perfected the machine Morse was 
busy getting out a patent, and Gale was making 
batteries. The construction of the first telegraphic 
circuit moved slowly; but at last a day came when 
the telegraph was as complete as the inventors knew 
how to make it. 

"William," said young Vail, joyfully, ''run up 
to the house and ask father to come down and see 
the telegraph machine work." 

The excited lad, in his shop clothes and without 



SAMUEL MORSE 195 

a coat, burst in upon the old Judge and cai^crly 
made known his errand. Judge Vail had all along 
testily refused to look at the machine. But now 
he followed the boy back to the little room without 
a word. He wrote upon a slip of paper, "A patient 
waiter is no loser," and handed it to his son. 

"There," he said, "if you can send that so Pro- 
fessor Morse can read it at the other end of the 
wire, I shall be convinced." 

This was done in a twinkling, and the old Judge 
was overjoyed. 

"It is wonderful!" he cried, '' wojidcrfiil! How 
do you propose to string the wires ? " 

Professor Morse modestly explained the i)lan of 
sinking a hollow pipe into the earth and running 
the wires through it. 

"Then," cried the Judge, his eyes alight with 
enthusiasm, "you have the greatest invention of 
the age! You have made it possible to unite the 
old world and the new, for wires can be laid in the 
ocean's bed. I congratulate you from the depths of 
my heart ! " 

Others, however, were not so quick to grasp the 
importance of the telegraph. Business men were 
slow to try new things in those days, and Judge 
\^ail stuck to the idea of having the government 



196 AMERICAN HEROES 

build the first line. Finally, in 1842, five years 
later, the House of Representatives passed a bill 
appropriating thirty thousand dollars for the con- 
struction of a telegraph, on Morse's plan, from 
Washington to Baltimore. The bill had yet to pass 
the Senate and receive the President's signature 
before it could become a law. A large number of 
appropriations of one kind and another were in 
advance of it, and the friends of the telegraph had 
every reason to fear that the bill would be killed 
in the Senate. 

The last hours of the session drew nigh, and 
Professor Morse, who had been in Washington for 
days doing what he could to advance the interests 
of his invention, was buoyed up with hope one 
moment, and in the depths of despair the next. 
Then a senatorial friend came to him and told him 
that the bill could not possibly be passed; there 
were too many others before it. But the next 
morning, while he was at breakfast, ]\Iiss Ellsworth, 
the daughter of the Commissioner of Patents, 
brought Morse word that his bill had passed the 
night before. For a moment he could not speak 
for joy; then he thanked Miss Ellsworth for her 
kindness and said that she should send the first 
message over the telegraph line. 



SAMUEL MORSE 197 

As it had been Morse's orig-inal plan to lay the 
wires in underground i)ii)cs, work on the ditches 
was begun at once. But, when only seven thousand 
dollars were left of the thirty thousand appro- 
priated, it was discovered that the naked wires let 
the electricity escape into the ground. Clearly a 
line built in this fashion would never be a success. 
What was to be done? After much perplexity, the 
machine for digging the ditches was purposely run 
against a stone and broken. This furnished an 
excuse for delaying matters, and gave the inventor 
a chance to plan something else. 

After a year's delay it was decided to stretch the 
wires on poles. This was accomplished in 1844, 
and Miss Ellsworth. sent the first message flashing 
over the wire from Washington to Baltimore — 
a distance of forty miles. It was, " Wliat hath 
God wrought!" The first news sent by telegraph 
was that James K. Polk had been nominated 
for President. 

The introduction of the telegraph into general 
use was very slow. People did not understand its 
mechanism, and they would not believe the mes- 
sages that came over the wire until they could 
verify them by the mail. At first the operators 
w^orked for nothing, and slept under their telegraph 



198 AMERICAN HEROES 

tables. Soon, however, business men began to gain 
confidence in the telegraph and its success was 
assured. In 1845, ^^^ York and Philadelphia were 
connected ; but, as wires could not be made to work 
under water, the messages were received on the 
New Jersey side of the Hudson and carried to New 
York by boat. By 1856, telegraph lines wxre spread 
well over our country and in foreign lands as well. 
Professor Morse was now no longer in need of 
money. He was honored, both at home and abroad, 
and had in his possession many valuable decora- 
tions in gold and diamonds, wdiich were given to 
him by foreign powers. 

When the telegraph first rose to popularity in 
our country some forty companies competed for 
the business. This was ruinous, and, in 1856, a 
union of Western companies w^as formed and called 
the Western Union Telegraph Company. Today it 
has more than seventy thousand offices, and has in 
use more than a million and a half miles of wire. It 
has a capital stock of a hundred million dollars, and 
does the greater part of the telegraph business in 
the United States. 

From the very first, Professor Morse had an 
idea that a telegraph line could be built under 
water, but he never experimented with the ocean 



SAMUEL lAlOKSl-: 199 

cable. 11iis wris left to Cyrus W. Field, who, in 
1858, laid the llrst telegraph caljle across the 
Atlantic Ocean. 

Professor Morse lived to be eighty-one years of 
age. He saw his invention in use all over the world ; 
but, doubtless, he never thought of the telegraph as 
being used for anything but the sending of mes- 
sages. What would he say could he return to earth 
and see how alarm bells and time bells are rung by 
means of the telegraph, and how clock hands at 
points remote from each other are moved in unison? 
Above all, what would he say of that wonderful 
invention of today — wireless telegraphy? 




DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT 



ADMIRAL FARRAGUT, OUR GREAT 
NA\ AL. COMMANDER 

In the year 1801 there was bom in a certain 
comfortable log cabin not far from Knoxvillc, 
Tenn., a baby boy who was destined to become 
famous. David Glasgow Farragut the Jittle one 
was christened, and he soon grew into a sturdy 
little chap wholly befitting his name. 

His father, Major George Farragut, was a leader 
among the hardy frontiersmen in his section. A 
Spaniard by birth, from a good old fighting stock, 
he came to America in 1776 and fought with great 
credit in the Revolution. He was brave and daring 
to the point of recklessness. He had his own ideas 
fdr bringing up his three boys, and used to take 
them with him on all kinds of perilous enterprises, 
to teach them courage and self-reliance. In 1807 
a friend secured for him a sailing-master's com- 
mission and the conimand of Gunboat tt, then sta- 
tioned at New Orleans. He started immediately 
for his new post, leaving his wife to follow later 
with the children and household effects on a flatboat. 

201 



202 AMERICAN HEROES 

Most women would have shrunk in dismay from 
the undertaking; but Elizabeth Farragut was no 
ordinary woman. Their home stood on the edge of 
the unbroken forest; wolves and hostile Indians 
prowled about ; and she had often been called upon 
to defend herself and children. She knew that the 
new home was situated in a troubled and perilous 
part of the country; yet she embarked on the long 
and tedious journey as cheerfully as though she 
were merely setting out on a pleasure trip with 
her little flock. 

Shortly after their arrival at the new home, 
David, then a little lad of six summers, had his 
first ride on salt water. It was across Lake Pont- 
chartrain in a yawl"^ with his father, in the midst 
of a driving gale. This was the beginning of 
David's many trips with his father and brothers 
in all kinds of crafts and in all kinds of w^eather. 
When the sailing-master's friends remonstrated 
with him for subjecting his sons to so much danger, 
he would laughingly reply: ''Now is the time to 
conquer their fears ! I want them to be able to go 
where danger calls, and to face peril with unruffled 
composure." 

Associated with George Farragut at the New 
Orleans naval station was Captain David Porter, 



ADMIRAL FARRAGUT 203 

of Revolutionary fame. I le was a man well ad- 
vanced in years, and in poor health. One day 
Farragut found him in the bottom of a small fishing- 
boat, unconscious from sunstroke. He at once car- 
ried the unfortunate man to his plantation, where 
Mrs. Farragut attempted to nurse him back to 
health. In a few days, however, she was stricken 
with yellow^ fever, and her death followed Porter's 
so closely that the two were buried on the same day. 

Not long afterward, the Captain's son, Com- 
mander David Porter, came to New Orleans to 
take charge of the naval station. He w^as so grate- 
ful to the Farragut family for their kindness to 
his father that he offered to adopt one of the 
motherless boys and train him for the navy. The 
lot fell to David, now a lad of seven years. His 
elder brother, William, was already a midship- 
man,* and the lad had heard a great deal about 
the glories and adventures of a military career. 

Commander Porter had distinguished himself in 
the naval war with France and in many remark- 
able fights with pirate crews in the West Indies and 
the Mediterranean. None w^as better acquainted 
with military tactics than he, nor was more kind and 
chivalrous. Flad Farragut sought far and wide, he 
could not have found a better guardian and teacher 



204 AMERICAN HEROES 

for his little son. That the boy soon stood high in 
the affections of the Captain is evident. He took 
him at once to his own home, and there set about 
training him by daily companionship, much as the 
lad's own father had done. 

David enjoyed the adventurous life on board 
the gunboats in river and bayou; now chasing the 
famous pirates, Jean and Pierre Lafitte; and again 
sailing about on some government errand, whose 
chief value to the lad lay in impressing upon him 
the importance of doing one's duty faithfully in the 
small things as well as in the great. 

Finally, the good Captain carried David away to 
Washington and placed him in school there. They 
called on the Secretary of the Navy. He looked 
with favor upon the sturdy little lad. '' Study hard, 
David," he said, ''and when you are ten years old 
I will make you a midshipman." 

In the latter part of 1810, Captain Porter was 
relieved of duty at New Orleans, and journeyed 
North to see how David was getting on at school. 
The lad begged so hard to be taken away that the 
Captain persuaded the Secretary of the Navy to 
"issue a midshipman's warrant to the little chap," 
who was then just nine years, five months, and 
twelve days old. Captain Porter, however, had no 



ADMIRAL FARRAGUT 205 

place ready on his vessel then; so, after a short 
vacation, he put the boy in school at Chester, Pa. 

Here David w^aited for nearly a year. Then a 
summons came to join his guardian at Norfolk, Va. 
He was to serve under Captain Porter on the frigate 
Esscx,"^ one of the most noble ships of the navy, and 
a vessel destined to win fame in the War of 1812 
second only to that achieved by the Constitution. 

Barnes, in his Midshipman Farragiit, tells us 
that, according to Captain Porter, David was made 
up of '' three pounds of uniform and seventy pounds 
of fight." And we may well believe it when we 
remember the fighting stock of his Spanish ances- 
tors, and the examples of courage and daring which 
his parents had ever set before him. He was, more- 
over, a jolly, active lad, — "the life of the midship- 
men's mess," as another of his biographers states, 
" full of fun and as agile as a cat." 

The Essex carried a crew of three hundred fifty 
brave men, and was manned by a Captain so willing 
and eager for the fray that, like Paul Jones, he was 
ever ''venturing in harm's way." But we have not 
space here to follow her course. You may read all 
about it in Spears' David G. Farragnt. There, also, 
you may read a full account of how the young mid- 
shipman commanded a ship when but twelve years 



206 AMERICAN HEROES 

of age. Briefly, it happened in this wise: The 
Essex, in her campaign of clearing the sea of Brit- 
ish whalers, captured a number of prizes not far 
from the equator in the South Pacific. Captain 
Porter changed the name of the swiftest of these 
to the Essex Junior, and manned her with a picked 
crew under his faithful and trusted Lieutenant 
Downes, whom he instructed to convoy four of the 
captured ships to the harbor of Valparaiso. Each 
of these ships was also provided with Captain and 
crew, and on one of them, the Barclay, Midshipman 
Farragut shipped as Captain with a crew of faithful 
fellows from the Essex. 

All went well until on a certain day the Barclay 
fell behind the other ships. The navigating officer 
was Captain Randall, the ship's former comman- 
der. He was an old seaman, and in no humor to 
take orders from a twelve-year-old midshipman. 
He determined to seize the ship and go whaling 
as soon as he could get clear of the Essex Junior. 
He began to bluster about in a way calculated to 
overawe the lad and his crew; but Farragut was 
not to be intimidated. He considered that the time 
had come for him to be a man, so he faced the 
sailing-master and stoutly ordered him to fill away 
the maintopsail and overtake the Essex Junior. 



ADAIIRAL FARRAGUT 207 

" I will shoot the first man wlio dares to toucli a 
rope without my orders!" yelled Captain Randall, 
beside himself with rage. '' I will go my own course. 
I have no idea of trusting myself wath a miserable 
nutshell ! " 

He rushed below for his pistols. Alidshipman 
Farraeut at once summoned his faithful lieutenant 




BATTLE OF THE ESSEX WITH THE CHERUB AND PHOEBE 

and explained the situation, telling him at the same 
time that he wished the maintopsail filled away. 
"He answered, 'Ay, ay, sir!' in a manner which 
was not to be misunderstood," says Farragut, in his 
diary, "and my confidence was perfectly restored." 
From that moment the lad was master of his ship. 
He ordered Captain Randall not to come on deck 



208 AMERICAN HEROES 

with his pistols, unless he wished to go overboard, 
and gave orders to overtake the Essex Junior, 

Arriving abreast of her in a few hours' time, 
young Farragut went over and reported the cir- 
cumstances to Captain Downes. Randall also went 
over and attempted to palm the matter off as a prac- 
tical joke on the young midshipman to test his nerve. 
Captain Downes was not for a moment deceived; 
but, at the request of young Farragut, he sent the 
two back to the Barclay, w^ith the midshipman still 
serving as master, and as such he continued until 
port was reached. There Captain Downes learned 
that a British squadron was on its way to capture 
the Essex, and he rushed away with all speed to 
warn Porter, carrying along the officers and men 
who had handled the prize ships. All in all, in one 
cruise that was not a year long, ''the Essex — a 
ship that had cost but $154,687.77 fully armed and 
equipped for war — had earned in damage done to 
the enemy, and in property saved for her nation, at 
least six million dollars." 

But she was not now in condition to wrestle with 
a strong enemy such as was approaching, and 
Captain Porter made haste to get his fleet to 
\^alparaiso, where ])oth the Esse A' and Essex Junior 
might be repaired and made fit for a fight. 



ADMIRAL I AKUACJUT 209 

How ihc CJicnib and the PJiocbc, two fine ships 
from the enemy's squadron, at last engaged them 
there and conquered them hy force of numbers, is 
too long a story to tell here. It is sufficient to know 
that our midshipman fought bravely and well and, 
at last, threw down his arms with tears in his eyes. 

Porter arranged with the victor for the privi- 
lege of carrying his officers and crew^ home on parole 
in the Essex Junior. Shortly after arriving in New 
York, he took young Farragut to Chester, Pa., 
where he placed him in a school managed by "a 
(jueer old individual, named Neif," wdio conducted 
a school as odd as himself. The pupils were drilled 
like soldiers; studied no books; and rambled about 
in the fields with their master, w4io taught them 
geology, mineralogy, botany, and the languages in 
a truly delightful fashion as they went. 

In 1814, Farragut, then almost fourteen years 
old, was exchanged and assigned for ship duty on 
a brig w^hich was to make up one of a squadron 
with which Commodore Porter hoped to damage 
the enemy's commerce in the West Indies. For the 
next three or four years Midshipman Farragut 
served faithfully here and there, striving in odd 
hours to get an education. For, by this time, he 
had made up his mind to become a great naval com- 



210 AMERICAN HEROES 

mander, and to this end bent all his energies. The 
latter part of 1817 found him, by his own request, 
in the quaint old city of Tunis, "the Gate of the 
Orient," studying hard under the guidance of Rev. 
Mr. Folsom, the United States Consul. 

In 1 819, 3^oung Farragut became acting lieu- 
tenant under Porter. When orders came for them 
to proceed against the West Indian pirates, our 
hero rejoiced. The fleet cruised along the Cuban 
coast, without meeting a pirate, as all had been 
w^arned of their approach. They finally anchored 
in disappointment at the naval station at Key West. 
For more than two years they cruised about the 
Southern seas without accomplishing the glory 
which young Farragut had fondly pictured when 
they set out, for piracy had already received its 
death blow. 

On September 2, 1824, Farragut was married to 
Miss Susan Marchant, of Norfolk, Va. He was 
devotedly attached to his wife, who, after years of 
ill health, died at Norfolk, December 20, 1840. 

Young Farragut was commissioned a full-fledged 
lieutenant in 1825. He w^as on the Natchez, in 
Charleston harbor, in the memorable year of 1833, 
when South Carolina was threatening to withdraw 
from the Union because of the high tarift*"^ laws. 



ADMIRAL I^VRRAGUT 211 

Andrew Jackson, the famous ^' Old Hickory," was 
then President. He was not himself in favor of a 
protective tariff, but he did not believe that the 
Union could long hold together if any State could 
thus nullify a national law. So he told them that 
tJic la-a's of the United States imist be enforced, and 
sent word to the collector at Charleston to collect 
the usual duties, by force if necessary, and ordered 
the Xatchej: and other battleships to be on hand to 
assist him. But the gunboats w^ere not called upon, 
as South Carolina did not secede. 

Farragut was given a ship of his own in 1841. 
For two years he was stationed at a South Atlantic 
port, and then was returned to Norfolk. Here, 
December 26, 1843, he married Miss Viroinia 
Loyall, of that city. During the Mexican War he 
commanded the Saratoga, one of Commodore 
Perry's fleet of gunboats. 

When the Civil AVar broke out, Farragut, who 
had, in the meantime, been made a Captain, was 
again stationed at Norfolk. He was a Southerner, 
with a warm love for the South and its people ; but 
more than forty years before he had given oath to 
support the Constitution and to protect the nation's 
flag, and he now saw no reason why he should not 
remain firm for the Union. Not being willing to 



212 AMERICAN HEROES 

cast his lot with the Confederacy, he at once left 
Norfolk, with his wife and child, and went to 
Hastings-on-the-Hudson, where he waited appoint- 
ment. For some time he waited in vain, amidst all 
sorts of suspicions and indignities. Those in author- 
ity hesitated to choose him for fear that he might 
be lukewarm in the Union cause. But at last, in 
December, 1861, he was chosen to command an 
important naval expedition against New Orleans — 
the principal city in the South, as she commanded 
the Mississippi. 

As commander of the "Southern Gulf -Blockading 
Squadron,'' Farragut had a fleet of seven sloops-of- 
war, a large side-wheel ship-of-war, and nine gun- 
boats; besides the steamers of the mortar flotilla* 
under the immediate command of his adopted 
brother. Commander D. D. Porter. Farragut's 
flagship was the Hartford. The task before Farra- 
gut was one to test the bravery and skill of the most 
skillful and undaunted commander. New Orleans 
was defended by Forts Jackson and St. Philip — 
two strong forts on the opposite side of the Missis- 
sippi, at Plaquemine Bend, w4iere the river is not 
more than half a mile wdde. Below these a formi- 
dable boom of cypress logs, cables, and dismantled 
boat hulks stretched across the stream, in the form 



214 AMERICAN HEROES 

of a floating bridge or a "truss lying flat on the 
water." Above the forts lay a strong Confederate 
fleet of fifteen vessels, among them being the 
famous iron-clad ram* Manassas. But our hero 
was not one to be frightened by obstacles. He 
steamed up to the barrier on April i8, 1862, and 
began a fierce bombardment with the mortar boats. 

Five days of heavy firing made no impression on 
the forts. Indeed, Farragut had not expected that 
it would. The plan was made before he accepted 
command, and he had not protested, for he knew 
that later he could shape his course as he pleased. 
All along he had been determined to pass the forts 
if the mortars failed ; so now he called his Captains 
to the flagship to discuss how best this might be 
done. Of course, the first thing was to break the 
boom. Lieutenant Caldwell, of the Itasca, at once 
volunteered to do this, if another vessel would sup- 
port him. This Lieutenant Crosby, of the Pinola, 
was eager to do. So at ten o'clock on the night of 
April 20 the two vessels set forth on their perilous 
undertaking. 

Captain Porter opened fire with the mortars, 
hoping thus to cover the advance of the vessels, but 
they were soon seen and subjected to a heavy can- 
nonade. Neither one thought of turning back. They 



ADMIRAL LWRRAGUT 215 

attacked the raft with energy and tried to hreak 
it with a torpedo. But the electric wires parted 
and frustrated this plan. The Itasca then managed 
to get a firm hold of one of the hulks, hut she 
grounded herself while trying to j-erk it from the 
raft. The P'uiola came to the rescue and, after 
breaking two hawsers, managed to pull the Itasca 
from the mud, and to bring her tow with her. 

The space where the old hulk had been was wide 
enough to allow the Itasca to pass. Lieutenant 
Caldwell at once took advantage of this. He 
slipped through, turned about, and drove with a 
full head of steam into the raft, which w^as, of 
course, much weaker on that side. The hulks parted 
at once, and the chain w^as effectually broken. A 
little more w^ork and the old boats were freed of 
logs and cables and left to drift down stream. The 
w^ay was opened most gloriously, without even an 
attempt from the Confederate gunboats to check the 
process — a fact that, according to Spear, has never 
been explained. 

How the gunboats passed the barrier and worked 
their way past the hostile forts is too long a story 
to tell here. It was accomplished under a terrible 
fire. Not only did the Confederates man every gun 
which they possessed, but they towed out raft after 



216 AMERICAN HEROES 

• 

raft, "piled high with blazing pine and tar," and 
cast them loose upon the river to work such de- 
struction as they might. Something of the awful 
strain of the conflict may be gleaned from a letter 
w^hich Farragut wa-ote to his wife the day after the 
battle. " I am so agitated that I can scarcely write," 
he said, '' and I shall only tell you that it has pleased 
Almighty God to preserve my life through a fire 
such as the w^orld has scarcely knowai." 

The tale of Farragut's further struggles and 
triumphs in opening the Mississippi is of thrilling 
interest but too long to dwell on in this brief sketch. 
In appreciation of his glorious work, ''one of the 
greatest victories of any time," Congress created 
for him the rank of Rear- Admiral. 

In January, 1864, Farragut journeyed southward 
for his last great battle — the capture of Mobile. 
You may read the story of the desperate struggle 
in Mobile Bay, the greatest sea-fight in our history, 
in many places."^ Farragut spoke of it as "one of 
the hardest victories of my life, and the most des- 
perate battle I ever fought since the days of the old 
Esscxf' Congress created the new rank of Vice- 
Admiral to do him honor. The citizens of New 
York met him on his return with a set of resolutions 
recognizing his " illustrious service, heroic bravery. 



218 AMERICAN HEROES 

and tried loyalty." They also begged him to become 
a citizen of New York, and presented him a purse 
of fifty thousand dollars as a means to that end. 

Two years later, Congress, believing that it was 
unjust to the navy not to rank its leader as high as 
the greatest general on shore, further honored 
Farragut by making him an Admiral, with a salary 
of ten thousand dollars per year and a secretary 
whose salary '' should be equal to the sea pay of a 
lieutenant of the navy." He was the first to hold 
that rank m the American navy. It was well be- 
stowed, for Admiral Farragut, with the exception 
of Nelson, was the peer of the greatest sea-captains 
of all time. 

In June, 1867, Farragut was sent to command 
the European scjuadron. His wife accompanied him. 
The story of their triumphal cruise along the coast 
of the Old World, where the people did their best 
to show all honor and appreciation to the great 
Admiral, is told in Montgomery's Tlie Cruise of 
Admiral Farragut. Two years later he visited the 
Pacific coast and was delightfully entertained by 
the Californians. On his return he was taken very 
ill in Chicago. It w^as found that his heart was 
seriously affected and that the end could not be far 
away. He died August 14, 1870, while visiting 



ADMIRAL FARRAGUT 219 

his kinsman, Rear-Admiral Pennock, of the Ports- 
nioulh navy yards. His body was temporarily laid 
to rest at Portsmouth. In September, the Navy 
Department carried it to New York, where a great 
public funeral was held and the body interred in a 
beautiful plot in Woodlawn Cemetery. 

Congress ordered a twenty thousand dollar monu- 
ment for the man who was a commander at twelve, 
and who had oiven sixtv vears of faithful and 
supreme service to his country. It is a bronze 
statue of the Admiral and was erected in Farragut 
Square, Washington. On May 21, i88t, the citi- 
zens of New York unveiled a fine statue of their 
beloved hero in Madison Square. 




^^:^. /^. <^^cCf 



JAMES ?>. EADS, THE MASTER ENGINEER 

In the first half of the nineteenth century* there 
Hved in Cincinnati, Ohio, a gentleman who had his 
small fortune swept away at one stroke. He then 
decided to go to Louisville, Ky., where hetter oppor- 
tunities seemed to await him. In those days the 
Ohio River was the natural highway betv/een the 
two towns, and Mr. Eads and his family took pas- 
sage on one of the steamboats which plied between 
them. 

On the trip his small nine-year-old boy hung 
spellbound about the boat's engine. He asked all 
sorts of questions of the good-natured engineer, 
who did his best to explain things to the lad's satis- 
faction. The father was delighted to find his 
mischievous boy so greatly interested. Here, per- 
haps, was the very thing needed to make a fine man 
of him ; so, after they had become settled in their 
new home, he asked James how he would like a 
workshop and tools of his own. 

The boy was overjoyed and gave his father no 
rest until the promised shop was ready. Here he 

221 



222 AMERICAN HEROES 

• 

tinkered quietly away for hours at a time. And 
such wonderful models of sawmills, fire-engines, 
steamboats, and electrotyping machines as he made 
with only the chance instruction he had found on 
the boat! The boy was a natural mechanic, and 
had a large bump of inventive genius besides. 

But misfortune seemed to pursue the father. He 
w^as so unsuccessful in Louisville that he resolved 
to try his fortune farther West. Having decided 
to open a shop in St. Louis, he sent his family ahead 
by steamboat, intending to follow later with their 
household goods and supplies for the shop on a 
flatboat. 

Just as the boat on which they took passage 
entered St. Louis she caught fire. The Eads family 
escaped, barely clothed, and thus found themselves 
penniless and alone in a strange place. It w^as a 
cold, bleak morning, and their situation was des- 
perate indeed. But Mrs. Eads w^as a resourceful 
woman. She had long been used to making the 
best of things. 

So she did not now sit down to weep and bewail 
her "hard luck"; instead, she turned eagerly to 
some kind French ladies, who had come forward 
W'ith offers of help, and in a short time she had 
rented a house and was keeping boarders! 



JAMES B. EADS 223 

James, as resourceful aud reliant as his mother, 
at once set about fmding" a way to help her. He 
was only thirteen, and not very rugged. No one 
seemed to be needing a boy. But he did not despair. 
He knew he w^ould find something, if he kept on. 
Presently, while passing a fruit stand, a bright idea 
came to him. He touched his cap respectfully and 
stepped up to the vender. 

" What will you give me, Mister," he asked, '' to 
sell a basket of those apples for you?" 

The man looked at him sharply. Fortunately, 
he was a good judge of character and knew an 
honest countenance when he saw it. So he named 
a price, and James started off with a small basket 
of apples, confident of success. In less than an 
hour he was back for more. This time the dealer 
gave him a much larger basket than before, which 
he disposed of with equal success. Before night 
this had been repeated many times. The fruit 
dealer was delighted, and offered the lad a generous 
commission to sell apples daily. Of course, James 
was glad to accept, and for some time he rustled 
trade with unbounded success. 

But James had too much talent for the apple 
business. A merchant who w^as one of his mother's 
boarders liked his pluck, and soon offered him a 



224 AMERICAN HEROES 

• 

good situation, which he gladly accepted. The gen- 
tleman saw that he was fond of books, and gave him 
the use of his library. Works upon mechanics and 
engineering were his favorites. He had a passion 
for watching machinery in motion, and engineers 
were always pleased to explain fully to him the 
various parts of an engine. So the boy obtained 
both a practical and a theoretical knowledge of 
engineering. He also added materially to his edu- 
cation by steady miscellaneous reading. 

At the end of five years, warned by continual 
poor health, James left the dry-goods business and 
took a clerkship on a steamboat. Here he had a 
fine opportunity to learn all about the machinery 
of the boat and to study navigation at the same time. 
He was never idle. When off duty he was studying 
the river — its channel; its sandbars; its cross- 
currents ; and all the hindrances to free navigation, 
from St. Louis to the Gulf. He was as well-posted 
in steamboating on the Mississippi as any old pilot 
at the wheel. And at this time ( 1839) the class of 
river pilots was a large and respectable one, for no 
steamboat could ply up and down the river without 
the aid of these alert and skillful men. 

To understand the problems of these men, it is 
necessary to know something about the Mississippi. 



JAMES W. EADS 225 

This o-rcat river drains the lari^cr part of the United 
States. Its branehes toueh the Alleghanies on the 
East, and the Roekies on the West. The main 
stream is four thousand two hunch'ed miles lone, 
and averages about a mile in width, though some- 
times, in the spring and fall freshets, it rises with 
a terrifying rapidity and overflows its banks in cer- 
tain places until it is sixty miles wide. Frequently, 
when the flood subsides, it is found that the current 
has chosen a new channel. 

The water always flows along with tremendous 
force, ceaselessly eating away its banks, and carry- 
ing a muddy sediment. The clay that is washed ofif 
in the bends is deposited in the juts; and so the 
river goes on changing the outline of its banks from 
day to day. Here and there are hidden sandbars 
and snags capable of wrecking and sinking the 
strongest boats, and this is often done in spite of 
the most careful pilots. 

This capricious river ever held a strange fasci- 
nation for James Eads, and well it might, for it 
was the scene of the future triumphs of his engi- 
neering genius. He longed to thwart and conquer 
it, and, in 1842, gave up his clerkship to organize 
a ''wrecking company," whose business it would 
be to raise wrecked shi])s and save their cargoes. 



226 x\MERICAN HEROES 

The business proved to be an unbounded success. 
The insurance companies were wiUing to give the 
wreckers a large interest — sometimes nearly half 
of the rescued cargoes — and there was a law by 
which a vessel that had been wrecked for five years 
belonged to anyone who could rescue it. Eads and 
his partners worked up and down the river for 
hundreds of miles, with a variety of appliances for 
pumping out sand; for raising hulls; for diving, 
etc., most of which were the inventions of young 
Eads himself. 

Success did not spoil our hero. He had no great 
dreams of fame in the future, and he seems not 
to have thought of turning his clever inventive 
genius into capital. He was an earnest, hard- 
working young man, devoted to the comfort and 
happiness of his parents, whom he established on a 
farm in Iowa he had purchased for them. His 
grandson describes him at twenty- five as '' generous, 
proud, brave, and courteous; reverent in religion, 
a lover of nature, of poetry, of people, and of good 
books; and an inveterate early riser." 

About this time young Eads married Miss 
Martha Dillon, of St. Louis, and retired from the 
hazardous wrecking business. In company with 
others, he built the first glass factory west of the 



JAMES B. EADS 227 

Ohio River and slarlecl in to learn a 1)usiness of 
\vhich he knew nothing- at all. From the very first 
the odds were too heavy, and, after running two 
}ears, the works were obliged to shut down. 

James found himself twenty- five thousand dollars 
in debt ; but neither he nor his creditors seem to 
have been alarmed. The men he owed had such 
faith in his ability and integrity that they advanced 
him fifteen hundred dollars with which to go back 
into the wrecking business. He bought in with his 
former partners, and was soon busily striving to 
pay off his indebtedness. So w^ell did he succeed 
that in ten years' time he was entirely free of debt, 
and had, besides, his share of the half million which 
his company was then w^orth. 

In 1849 Eads became so prosperous that he had 
no need, as he wrote to his wife, of joining the 
rush to the gold fields of California. He began to 
clear the channel of the river and to improve the 
harbor of St. I.ouis. In 1856 he asked Congress to 
commission him to remove all the obstructions in 
the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Arkansas, and 
the Ohio, and to keep their channels open for a term 
of years. . A bill for this purpose found favor in 
the House, btit was killed in the Senate. The follow- 
ing year Eads retired from business on account 



228 AMERICAN HEROES 

• 

of his increasing poor health. His wife had died 
some time before. He now married his cousin's 
widow and sailed for Europe. On his return he 
bought a home and put in his time improving it, and 
for two years lived a life of leisure, the only 
resting-place in his busy life. 

Then the War of the Rebellion broke out. Presi- 
dent Lincoln at once saw the necessity of controlling 
the Mississippi. Attorney-General Bates, a Mis- 
souri man and warm personal friend of James B. 
Eads, at once proposed sending for him, as the 
person most able to give them all the information 
they needed about the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, 
and the use of steamboats upon them. Eads 
responded with eagerness to the summons. Later, 
when the government asked for bids for a fleet of 
gunboats for the Mississippi, he was the lowest 
bidder and was awarded the contract, promising 
to have the gunboats ready for action in the 
incredibly short space of sixty-five days! 

It was a task to quell the stoutest heart, and none 
but a rich man would have dared to undertake it. 
Turmoil and confusion were everywhere ; machine- 
shops, foundries, rolling-mills, saw-mills, and forges 
were all idle, and many of the workmen had gone 
to war. It would take the work of several well- 



JAMES r.. KADS 229 

equipped factories to get the boats coiiiplctcd in 
time, and Eads ^vent to work with a self-reliance 
and energy equaled only by his patriotism. He 
risked all his princely fortune to get the work done. 




Reproduced from liarpLT's Wet-kly, October, 18G1 
GUNBOATS ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN 1861 

"Most of the machine shops and foundries of 
St. Louis were at once set to work night and day, 
and, for hours at a time, the telegraph wires to 
Pittsburg and to Cincinnati ^vere in use. Twenty- 
one steam-engines and thirty-five boilers were 
needed. Prepared timber was brought from eight 
dififerent States, and the first iron plating used in 



230 AMERICAN HEROES 

the war was rolled not only in St. Louis and Cin- 
cinnati but in small towns in Ohio and Kentucky. 
Within two weeks four thousand men were at work 
in places miles apart — working by night and seven 
days a week." "^ 

At last the seven gunboats were finished, and no 
greater feat was accomplished during the war. To 
be sure they were not done quite on time, but they 
would have been had not Congress been unduly 
meddlesome and stingy. Eads used all of his own 
fortune and then called on patriotic friends to assist 
him. No doubt he felt amply repaid later for his 
persevering, self-sacrificing patriotism. For he re- 
joiced with exceeding satisfaction in the great good 
his boats were able to do for the cause. Historians 
have given him great credit for his work. Boynton 
tells us that ''such men deserve a place in history 
by the side of those who fotight our battles." 

But the patriotic usefulness of James B. Eads 
did not end with the construction of the many gun- 
boats he built first and last for the navy. Many 
checks went from his hand for the relief of sufferers 
in the war. He was especially kind and considerate 
to the boys in gray. Indeed, giving to others seems 
always to have afforded Mr. Eads much pleasure. 

His manners were calm and dioiiified, more like 



JAMES B. EADS 231 

those of a luiropcan <;ciUlenian of l)irth and breed- 
ing, than of a man Avho had worked hard most of his 
hfe. ''His hospitahty was princely," says his biog- 
rapher. " In his large house in the suburbs of St. 
Louis he received not only the young friends of his 
five daughters and his own friends, but also officers 
of the river fleet and of the army ; officers sent West 
on inspection duty, and foreign officers following 
the course of the war, and of the improvements in 
gunboat building. His mind was as active as his 
heart was generous, and the course of his life mir- 
rored that activity. Now he was at home; now in 
Washington; now at Cairo visiting the gunboats 
to see how^ they worked under fire.'' He was always 
busy with some kind of plan or project; but, no 
matter how busy, he managed to get a little time 
each day for solid reading. Thus he kept abreast 
of the times and added continually to his culture 
and education. 

The war seems to have aroused Kads to a great 
desire to be helpful. Naturally he turned to the 
Mississippi for the field of his activities. The people 
of St. Louis wanted a bridge across the Mississippi 
to the Illinois shore. Eads drafted a plan for this 
bridge which all the old engineers declared to be 
impracticable; but, in spite of the most formidable 



2Z2 AMERICAN HEROES 

obstacles the bridge was finally built according to 
his plan. This grand highway of the nation cost 
ten millions of dollars. It stands, ninety feet above 
the floods, a monument to the creative genius of the 
self-reliant '' apple boy " w4io knew no such word as 
fail. 

The building of the bridge, with all the vast ener- 
gies it required, did not, for one moment, cloud the 
purpose which had now become the cherished ob- 
ject of James B. Eads' life — that of opening the 
Mississippi to large ocean-going ships. He was a 
man capable of doing more than one great under- 
taking at a time, ill"^' in body as he was ; and he daily 
turned the problem of river improvement over in 
his mind. 

Below New Orleans the river becomes a sluggish 
wanderer, dividing into many mouths or " passes," 
and creeping through the marshlands into the Gulf. 
The end of each shallow mouth was formerly 
blocked by a sandbar. These obstructions w^ere 
the despair of the river commerce, and of the engi- 
neers who studied the problem of their removal. 

Various schemes had been suggested for deepen- 
ing the river channel, such as stirring up the bot- 
tom, dredging, constructing jetties,* and building 
a ship canal from New Orleans to the Gulf. The 



i^L 







'^^""'^j.-m-^^.: 



t 

.-^! 



^■v.^\ -. 









THE EADS BRIDGE ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI AT ST. LOUIS 



234 AMERICAN HEROES 

first two were tried repeatedly without success. A 
contract w^as let for the construction of a jetty sys- 
tem, but the builders were unable to cope with its 
obstacles and gave up in despair. A bill for the con- 
struction of a ship canal was already in the House 
when Eads came forward with the solution w4iich 
he had at last worked out. 

"All things being equal," said he, in his simple, 
straightforward way, " the amount of sediment 
which a river can carry is in direct proportion to 
its velocity. Wherever the current becomes slower 
it drops part of its burden ; when it becomes faster, 
it picks up more. One thing that makes a river 
slower is an increase of wadth. Now, then, if you 
will narrow the Mississippi at its mouth, it will 
become faster; consequently, it wall pick up more 
sediment and carry it out into the Gulf. The thing 
is as simple as A-B-C: aid the river to keep its 
waters together, and it will scour out its own 
bottom." 

Of course his plan met with great opposition. 
Those w^ho were interested in building the ship canal 
opposed it on business motives; the government 
engineers were against it because they were jealous 
of Eads; others w^re against it because his plan 
involved building jetties, which had been proven 



JAMES l\. EADS 235 

impossible. But our hero was greater than the 
opposition. He had studied many jetties in Europe. 
He knew they could be used in the Mississippi, and 
he had faith in his own power to build them. More- 
over, he soon succeeded in making many others 
think so too. 

He wanted eleven million dollars to make a chan- 
nel deep enough to float ships drawing twenty-eight 
feet of water. This was considerably less than the 
ship canal people w^ere asking for; still Congress 
hesitated. Then Eads offered to take the contract 
at his own figures, and wait for his pay until the 
w^ork was finished and accepted by Congress. 

Still so loud and w^eighty were the objections 
that Congress asked a little time to consider. A 
commission of capable engineers was sent to 
Europe to look into the matter. Eads also went 
abroad and made a careful study of the works at 
the mouth of the Danube, the Rhone, and other 
rivers* of importance. 

When he returned, Congress was ready to accept 
his offer, with provisions. He wanted to put his 
works in the Southwest Pass — the largest of the 
mouths and the one best adapted to the needs of 
commerce. But Congress would not listen to this 
at all. It favored the South Pass, a channel about 



236 AMERICAN HEROES 

one-third the size of the other, both in width and 
volume of water; but it wanted the same resuUs 
that could be expected of the larger ! And instead 
of increasing the payment to correspond wdth the 
greater difficulties, it wanted the work done for less 
money! Eads pleaded, argued, and reasoned, but 
the government stood firm; and, finally, so great 
was his desire to do the work, that he accepted 
their terms. 

Soon houses were built on the marsh for a large 
force of engineers and workmen, and the great task 
was begun with his customary dispatch. The work 
progressed amidst a storm of difficulties, but no 
obstacle was too great for Eads. '' He grappled 
with great problems in engineering, and solved them 
as easily as a boy subtracts two from six." * All 
the world knows the result of his efforts. Today 
the jetty system so piles up the mighty floods of the 
Mississippi in heaps that the great ships of all 
nations can come and go at pleasure. 

Eads was now of world-wide fame, and was 
wanted all over the globe for advice and assistance 
in engineering matters. ■ 

At the age of fifty-nine he removed to New 
York, where he might "be more in the center of 
things ! " He made extensive private tours in the 



238 AMERICAN HEROES 

search of health and engineering- knowledge. He 
explored about eight hundred miles of the Danube ; 
he visited the Suez Canal and a canal in Amster- 
dam, for already the question of the canal across 
the American isthmus was stirring, and he was 
deeply interested. Many honors and awards came 
to him, chief among them being the Albert Medal 
bestowed upon him by England, " as a token of ap- 
preciation for the services he had rendered to the 
science of engineering." He refused scores of 
political honors, among them being the offer of the 
nomination for the presidency. 

At sixty years of age, we find him " rich, hon- 
ored, and frail ; not content to rest on the laurels 
of his gunboats, his bridge, or his jetties," but full 
of a scheme to build a ship-railway across the 
Isthmus of Tehuantepec from the Gulf of Mexico 
to the Pacific. This was to take the place of the 
proposed Panama Canal. People were astounded, 
and called the idea "a decidedly picturesque vision." 
Eads, as usual, met the opposition with plain, com- 
monsense statements, which should have been most 
convincing. 

The idea of a ship-railway was not original with 
Eads. He had met with a simpler form of his plan 
in his travels, and he was, moreover, convinced that 



JAMES P.. EADS 239 

"science could do anythino- if ii had money enoui^-h." 
His plan was to build a twelve-rail track on which 
monster, double-headed locomotives were to haul a 
strong", many-wheeled car. llie car was to be pro- 
vided with a huge cradle, into which the ship was 
to be Roated and carefully prop])ed. To guard 
against straining- the ship, all curves were to l)e 
managed by the use of turntables. As usual, Eads 
was willing to stake money on his project, and 
"preached this new crusade of science with his cus- 
tomary vigor." He converted many to his way of 
thinking and had several financiers ready to put 
money into the project, when he fell sick, and his 
doctors ordered him aw^ay to Nassau. He was des- 
perately ill, but he would not give up. 

"I shall not die," he said. "I have not finished 
my work. I w ant to see great ships pass over the 
land from ocean to ocean." 

His friends, however, knew that it could not be. 
James B. Eads was dying. He passed from earth 
on March 8, 1887, not quite sixty-seven years of 
age. No one has finished his work! Perhaps that 
remains for some bright boy who may read this tale 
of America's greatest civil engineer. 




PETER COOPER 



PETER COOPER, THE MAN WITH A 
NOBLE PURPOSE 

One dark night, in the year 1791, a humble 
hat-maker walked down Broadway, New York, in 
deepest thouoht. A baby boy had recently been 
born to him, and he felt that, somehow, the child 
was destined, to do a great good in the world. He 
ought, therefore, to have a name somewhat out of 
the ordinary. What should it be? Suddenly it 
seemed as though a voice said to him clearly and 
distinctly: "Call him Peter!'"' 

So the litde babe was christened Peter Cooper. 
As soon as he grew old enough to understand, his 
parents told him how he had received his name, and 
the great hopes they had for him. Possibly their 
faith and desires acted as a stimulus to the bov, 
for he was studious and thoughtful beyond his 
years, and his little brown hands were never idle. 
"He was always doing the small deeds that are 
the beginning of the great ones." 

His father and his grandfather, General John 
Campbell, had both fought gallantly in the Revolu- 

241 



242 AMERICAN HEROES 

tioii, and little Peter never tired of hearing them 
tell of deeds of valor. No doubt these stories first 
fired him with the desire to do something useful. 
He had come into the world on the wings of a new 
country, as it were. "He was to see a new-born 
nation grow into strength and greatness. A thou- 
sand miracles of progress wxre to transpire, and 
the boy was to be a part of it all." 

While Peter was still a very small child, his fam- 
ily removed to Peekskill-on-the-Hudson, then an old 
Dutch village such as one finds in the pages of 
Washington Irving. There his father built a store 
and a church. The store w^as not a very profitable 
venture, and traveling preachers visited the little 
church and faithful John Cooper's table so fre- 
quently ''that what small profit there was seems 
to have been eaten up by these hungry gentlemen. 
They were a rather solemn-looking lot ; but there 
was a supreme faith in God and His beneficence in 
their hearts, and Peter caught some of the good 
seed they w^ere scattering, and his early sense of 
religion never left him." * 

The Cooper family was a large one. There were 
six children besides Peter, and the tired, overworked 
mother often pressed him into service about the 
house. The lad used cheerfully to cook, w^ash, make 



PETF.R COOPER 243 

beds, sweep, or do anything to help alono*. One of 
his first useful inventions was a device for washini^ 
and ])ounding soiled clothes. His mother was de- 
lighted. She had not yet lost her faith that Peter 
was a wonder child. If he could do one remarkable 
thing, he could do another. And so it ])rove(l. 
Peter's next triumph was a pair of shoes! In the 
eyes of the Coopers there was not a greater hero 
along the Hudson. One pair of shoes meant shoes 
for seven Cooper children — an item of great impor- 
tance in those days! 

Finally the time came when Peter was no longer 
needed at home. He was a bright, hearty lad of 
seventeen; straight and strong, with a sturdiness 
which he had inherited from his father. So the 
youth set out to make his own way in the world. 
He went to New York, for he felt that in the heart 
of the rapidly growing city lay his chance to prove 
there was something in his name of Peter after all. 

Shortly after arriving in the city Peter appren- 
ticed himself to John Woodward, a coach-builder, 
at the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street. 
For his work he was to receive twenty-five dollars 
a year and board with his master, who was to teach 
him the trade of carriage-making. 

The life of apprentices in those days was any- 



244 AMERICAN HEROES 

thing but enviable. Their masters often proved 
hard and treated them Httle better than brutes. As 
a class, they had no social standing. There were 
no night schools, no reading-rooms, no free libra- 
ries, no free lectures open to young apprentices and 
mechanics. The world was barred to them, and the 
thought stirred young Cooper to his very soul. He 
had, however, been very fortunate in the. choice of 
a master. Mr. Woodward was most kind and con- 
siderate, and his young apprentice repaid him by 
being both diligent and capable, trying eagerly to 
learn all about the trade. 

King's College was not far from the coach shop. 
Young Cooper often paused in his work to watch 
the sons of the rich run across College Square. 
They knew things he did not. The best lectures, 
the best music, the best libraries, the best colleges, 
were everywhere ready to welcome and aid them. 
But there was no place for the greasy mechanic 
and apprentice. More and more the iron of this 
fact pierced the young man's soul. He determined 
that he would one day break this "galling yoke of 
bondage," and found a great school which should 
be free to the poor and friendless alike. But he 
formed no definite plan for doing this. He only 
knew that he must patiently work and strive until 



PETER COOPER 245 

he had, in some way, managed to amass money 
enough to make himself a power. 

So he worked and thought, and grew stronger in 
his purpose day by day. He made several inven- 
tions for the betterment of his trade, among them 
a contrivance for mortising hubs, which had 
hitherto been done by hand. Finally the end of 
his four years of servitude drew nigh. 11 is grate- 
ful employer kindly offered to set him up in busi- 
ness. The young inventor did not accept, because, 
as he said in later life, he feared he might fail and 
be imprisoned for debt! 

Instead, he went to Hempstead, Long Island, to 
visit his brother. Here there was a factory which 
made machines for shearing cloth. Young Cooper 
worked there for three years, earning nine dollars 
a week. This was considered an excellent salary 
in those days, when a dollar would buy about five 
times what it will now. He lived very carefully and 
put away a large part of his wages each week. At 
the end of three years he had saved enough to 
patent his own device for shearing cloth. The first 
purchaser of a county-right for the machine was 
Matthew Vassar of Poughkeepsie, who afterward 
founded Vassar College for the higher education 
of women. He paid the young inventor five hun- 



246 



AMERICAN HEROES 



dred dollars. This was Cooper's first real start in 

life, and the founda- 
tion of the fortune he 
hoped one day to win. 
The manufacture 
and sale of the Cooper 
shearing machine be- 
came a prosperous 
business, and the 
young inventor was 
very happy. So he worked and waited; toiling, 
unaided, up the steep path of learning in the quiet 
of his own room at night. Though his life purpose 
was to make it easy for 
others to obtain an educa- 
tion, Air. Cooper never 
talked of learnino- and 




RAILROAD COACH IN 1830 




THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE BUILT IN AMERICA (1829) 



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248 AMERICAN HEROES 

seldom made any mention of books, even after he 
had accompHshed his hfe mission. It is micertain 
how much he acquired in his broken studies, but 
he conversed on many subjects, and his language 
was always the best. 

On December i8, 1813, young Cooper married 
Sarah Bedell, a charming young lady of Huguenot 
descent, and set up housekeeping at Hempstead. 
The union proved a happy one. From the first 
Mrs. Cooper was in sympathy with her husband's 
secret purpose, and warmly seconded his efforts. 
He often lovingly referred to her as his guardian 
angel. Storm clouds never visited the Cooper home, 
for the master possessed a sweetness of nature 
seldom found with the inventive faculty. When 
he had become a white-haired old patriarch, his face 
was so stamped with serenity and kindness that one 
of his biographers says : " Some who saw old Peter 
Cooper, and studied him at the age of ninety-three, 
must have thought of the faraway little boy that 
he once was.'' 

When the march of time and progress sounded 
the death knell of Cooper's shearing machine, he 
moved his family to New York and went into the 
grocery business. The venture was a fair success, 
but profits were slow, so he bought a glue factory. 



PETER COOPER 249 

Mr. Cooper knew nothing about the manufacture 
of glue; but he knew what a good gkie ought to 
be, and he made up his mind that he would make 
the best glue that could possibly be made. Soon 
shopmen and laborers began to talk of the excel- 
lence of Cooper's glue, and there was a ready mar- 
ket for all he could produce. 

Gradually hard work, sound, honest business 
methods, and living always below his means, 
brought success. His business field widened. He 
became interested in iron, and made many inven- 
tions, not the least of which was a Tom Thumb 
locomotive, the first railroad locomotive made in 
America.* His rolling-mills and glue factory gave 
employment to thousands of men. The name of 
Peter Cooper was known far and wide. The Iron 
and Steel Institute of Great Britain bestowed on 
him the Bessemer gold medal. He had become a 
millionaire! Now% indeed, he was ready for the 
realization of his purpose, and he knew just what 
he wanted to do. 

Years before he had heard a gentleman who had 
just returned from Paris describe the school of arts 
and trades founded in that city by the First Napo- 
leon. He was deeply impressed when told of the 
hundreds of poor young men who lived on a crust 



250 AMERICAN HEROES 

of bread a day in order to get the benefit of this 
school, which they could attend without charge. 
Just such an institution had long existed in vague 
form in his own brain. He asked many questions, 
and then and there determined to build an institute 
which should be dedicated forever "to the union of 
art and science, and their application to the useful 
purposes of life.'' 

He looked about at once for a suitable location 
for such an institution. There was a lot for sale 
at the junction of Third and Fourth Avenues. Mr. 
Cooper bought it. At intervals, as he had the 
money, he added to his purchase until he owned the 
whole block. Then, in 1854, he laid the founda- 
tion of that noble structure, the Cooper Union. 
The building, which stands today practically un- 
changed, cost somewhat more than half a million 
dollars. It has a library of more than twenty 
thousand volumes, and the best papers and maga- 
zines of the world are on its tables. Fifteen hun- 
dred persons daily visit the comfortable reading 
rooms. The great hall, with seating capacity for 
two thousand people, is thrown open on Saturday 
nights. Here free lectures are given on a variety 
of subjects interesting to the working classes. 

In its art schools the very best instructors are 



i't.""?r : r;? «! Vi"^: ^ ti^;i ' V:ag, ' I 'tZi^ y > J'::il!'K.''. ':" 




252 AMERICAN HEROES 

employed to teach engineering, drafting, drawing, 
chemistry, natural philosophy, painting, telegraphy, 
etc. Day and night this great institution, which is 
maintained at a cost of more than fifty thousand 
dollars per year, opens wide its doors to all who care 
to enter. Here hundreds and thousands of poor 
boys and girls of all classes, creeds, and races have 
received the benefit of the labors of a little country 
lad who was himself once a slave of toil and knew 
the pathos of the cry, ''Oh, .if I only had an 
education ! " 

Probably no happier man ever walked the streets 
of New York than was Mr. Cooper when he saw 
his cherished plans in successful operation. It was 
his delight to drive to the institute daily and witness 
the earnest students hard at w^ork, making the most 
of their opportunities. No one was so humble as 
to be beneath his notice, and many a stranded stu- 
dent from the backwoods received food as well as 
education at the hands of " Grandpa Cooper." 

He was especially interested in poor girls and 
struggling women who had no means of support. 
He delighted to bring such to his school, where they 
might learn how to be self-supporting. It was his 
creed that there would be fewer broken-hearted 
women in the world if each one knew some useful 




MK. PETER COOPERS CARRIAGE 



254 AAIERICAN HEROES 

occupation which would make her self-supporting 
and therefore independent. " Too many girls 
marry for a home," said he. "Too many mothers 
struggle along trying to keep ^ the breath of life 
in themselves and their little ones by doing heavy 
washings for which they are wholly imfit, and 
which soon bring them to an untimely grave." 
These ever found his ready aid, and not unfre- 
quently he supported a whole brood while the 
mother learned some useful and congenial trade. 

Every little waif in the streets of New York 
knew Good Peter Cooper. His name was endeared 
in countless homes. He was the best loved man in 
America. Wherever Peter Cooper appeared in his 
little old-fashioned carriage,"^ cabmen and carters 
of every description would respectfully touch their 
caps and give him the right of way. 

And that carriage! It stands today at Cooper 
Union, in the center of the hall which fronts on 
the old Bowery road. '' It is a funny, old- 
fashioned affair, made in the time when gentlemen 
wore broadcloth and nankeens, and ladies rode 
abroad in wide flowered prints and poke bonnets. 
There is nothing very remarkable about its appear- 
ance." But what an eloquent story it has to tell! 
Peter Cooper rode in it while at his daily toil of 



PETER COOPER' 255 

making" a fortune large enough to l)uil(l Cooper 
Union! Carriages have 1)een fashioned for many 
centuries, and men have used them to gratify all 
the emotions of the human mind ; but it is seldom 
that the owner of a carriage has, through its use, 
made his name and deeds immortal ! 

Peter Cooper's great soul passed from the eartli 
on April 4, 1883. On the day that his body was 
borne down Broadway a so-called miracle occurred. 
The great noisy avenue was as still and silent as 
the grave which was soon to hold the loved remains 
of the people's dearest friend; not a person or a 
vehicle of any description marred the broa'd street. 
It was a beautiful tribute to the quiet, peace-loving, 
kindly man, whose life was, in such full measure, 
what a noble life should be! 

Peter Cooper made his name immortal. '* It will 
go down the centuries with a bright halo of unfad- 
ing glory." The secret of his success was in having 
a noble purpose toward which he bent every energy ; 
never swerving to the right or to the left, but ever 
pressing on eagerly and hopefully toward the goal. 
He lived for something. He did good and left 
behind him a monument of virtue which the storms 
of time can never destrov.* 



NOTES 

p. 2. Captain Staiidish's sword is preserved among the relics in 
Plymouth Hall. 

P. 5. Originally all the land in the territory from what is now 
Maine to Florida was called Virginia. King James of England 
created two companies to settle upon this land. The first was called 
the London Company. It had the right to establish settlements any- 
where between thirty-four degrees and forty-one degrees north 
latitude. The Plymouth Company, as the second band of mer- 
chants was called, could place settlements anywhere between the 
thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees. All settlements were to be 
along the seacoast, and neither company could locate within one 
hundred miles of the other. 

P. 8. Pilgrims: This was the name given to them in after years 
because of their wanderings. 

P. 10. By some strange oversight the Pilgrims had forgotten to 
bring fishing tackle with them from Holland. 

P. 12. Squanto died in 1622, much to the sorrow of the Pilgrim 
colony. 

P. 13. Hovuitaer: A small, mortar-like cannon. 

P. 22. Nathaniel Bacon was born in Suffolk, England, January 2, 
1642. 

P. 2y. Bacon wished to mount a few cannon he had on the 
breastworks, but he did not want to risk the lives of his men. He 
hit upon a novel and ingenious plan to do this. He .sent out to 
the plantations near by of the chief men of the Governor's party and 
brought their wives and daughters into his camp. He made them 
sit down on the breastworks while the cannon were being placed. 
Of course, not a shot was fired by the Governor's party. When 
the work was finished Bacon courteously thanked his fair and 
angry foes and permitted them to return home. 

P. 28. The place consisted of a church and some sixteen or 
eighteen widely scattered houses. 

P. 31. The following is Washington's reply to the President of 
Congress, who announced the appointment: "Though I am truly 

257 ' 



258 NOTES 

sensible of the high honor done me in this appointment, yet I feel 
great distress from a consciousness that my abiHties and military 
experience may not be equal to the extensive and important trust. 
However, as the Congress desires it, I will enter upon the momen- 
tous duty, and exert every power I possess in their service and for 
the support of the glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most 
cordial thanks for this distinguished testimony of their approbation. 
" But, lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my 
reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the 
room, that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not 
think myself equal to the command I am honored with. As to 
pay, sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that, as no pecuniary 
consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous em- 
ployment at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do 
not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account 
of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will discharge, and that 
is all I desire." 

P. 39. A doubloon was a Spanish coin and worth about $15.60 
in our money ; a pistole was one-quarter of a doubloon. 

P. 53. Hero Stories from American History, by Blaisdell. 

P. 54. Here, in the city of Philadelphia, July 4, 1776, the 
Declaration of Independence was signed by the Colonial Congress. 

P. 56. Hessians: So-called because the greater number of them 
came from the Hessian states in Germany. 

P. 62. The battle of Oriskany has been claimed both by Fed- 
erals and British. 

P. 83. The place is still standing, and then, as now, was known 
as 'The Cedars." 

P. 86. There was no portrait of Hale extant; but he was 
described as a well-built young man about six feet tall, with a broad 
chest, full face, light blue eyes, fair complexion, and light brown 
hair. By careful study of descriptions given of his appearance 
Mr. MacMonnies believes he has given a truthful portrait of the 
young hero. 

P. 90. These men were of the Pennsylvania Line. They had 
been drilled and trained by Wayne himself, and were devotedly 
attached to their leader. 

P. 92. Later he was handsomely rewarded for his services; and 



NOTES 259 

his master was so delighted with his wit and the success with which 
he led the patriots that he not only gave him a fme horse but his 
freedom also. 

P. 93. Only one man escaped from the fort, a gallant young 
captain who leaped boldly into the Hudson and swam to the British 
ship, a mile away. The news of the storming of Stony Point was 
carried to General Clinton in this way, who affected not to care 
much about it ! 

P. 95. General Wayne was a very handsome man, and much 
given to dress, so much so that he was called a dandy. It always 
caused him much distress that his troops could not be "clean-shaven, 
well-powdered, and fully equipped," because he thought a well- 
dressed soldier had much more respect for himself than a ragged 
one, and would therefore fight better. His theory may have been all 
right, but the Continental soldier fought as well in rags as any other 
way. At any rate, Wayne did what he could in this respect, for he 
had a barber appointed in each company of his command ! 

P. loi. In the early days of the Revolution two classes of flags 
were much in vogue. These were the " pine-tree " flags of New 
E'ngland, and the '" rattlesnake " flags, which were more national in 
character. On the latter the rattlesnake was variously represented 
on a white ground. Jones' adopted state being Virginia he naturally 
hoisted the Culpcper flag. The need of a national flag became 
evident in 1775. The first flag adopted by Congress consisted of 
thirteen stripes with the British union. On June 14, 1777, Congress 
ordered the union to be displaced by thirteen stars, thus fixing the 
form of our national flag. This day—" flag " day— is observed as a 
national holiday. 

P. 108. On one of these occasions, the story is told, that, as he 
neared the village of Kirkaldy, a few miles below Leith, on the 
coast of Fife, the inhabitants observed his approach from the 
church, and knew him at once as "the bold pirate, Paul Jones." 
whom every heart held in fear. The parson and his flock imme- 
diately deserted the church and gathered on the beach. Here the 
Reverend Shirra offered the following very remarkable prayer: 

"Now, dear Lord, dinna ye think it a shame for ye to send this 
vile pirate to rob our folks o' Kirkaldy? Ye ken that they are puir 
enow already, and hae naething to spare. The way the wind hlaus. 
lu-'ll be bore in a iiffv. a wlia kens what be may do?' He's nae 



260 NOTES 

too good for onything. He'll burn their hooses, take their very 
claes, and strip them to the very sark. And woes me, wha kens 
but that the bloody villain might tak' their lives. The puir weemin 
are most frightened out of their wits, and their bairns screeching 
after them. I canna think of it ! I hae long been a faithful 
servant to ye, O Lord. But gin ye dinna turn the wind aboot 
and blow the scoundrel oot of our gate, I'll nae stir a foot, but 
will just sit here till the tide comes. Sae tak' your will o't." 

Never was a prayer more promptly answered. 'Tn a jiffy" the 
wind changed and Kirkaldy was saved. But other ports were not 
so fortunate. Many merchant ships fell into Paul Jones's hands, 
and the greatest excitement and alarm was felt all along the coast, 
for none knew at what moment he might appear. 

P. 115, Seawell's Tzvchc Naval Captains. 

P. 118. In 1815, Napoleon, musing gloomily over the defeat of 
the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar, asked Marshal Berthier : 
"How old was Paul Jones when he died?" Berthier replied that 
he thought he was about forty-five years old. "Then," said Napo- 
leon, "he did not fulfill his destiny. Had he lived to this time 
France might have had an admiral." 

P. 127. The fame of Boone's exploits traveled beyond his own 
country over to Europe, and Lord Byron so admired the sturdy back- 
woodsman that he eulogized him in one of his greatest poems. 

P. 132. In those days no provision was made in the Assembly for 
spectators. There was no gallery from which they could look down 
upon the contestants. — Ellis. 

P. 137. This illustration shows Jefferson reading the draft of 
the Declaration to the other members of the committee. 

P. 139. In May and June of 1776 Mr. Jefferson rented the second 
floor of this house, which stood at the southwest corner of Seventh 
and Market Streets (now 7C0 Market Street). Here the Declaration 
of Independence was written. The house was demolished, and its 
side is now included in the Penn National Bank building. The 
black upright lines define the house. 

P. 142. Mr. Jefferson's daughter Martha, her husband and chil- 
dren, and the children of his daughter Mary, who died in 1804, 
made his last days pleasant indeed. 

P. 146. Just one hundred years before (1707) a Dr. Papin, who 
had made a number of inventions for the use of steam, made 



NOTES .261 

a steamboat somewhat similar to Fulton's, which he ran on the 
Fiikla River in Hesse Cassel, Germany. He was confident his 
boat would be a success ; but the men who had water-craft thought 
their business was endangered and dragged his boat from the water 
and destroyed it. He went to London, but met with no better 
success there. Disheartened he returned to France, his native 
country, where he devoted his time to other experiments in steam. 
It remained for Fulton to succeed a century later. 

P. 167. McMaster's School History. 

P. 170. Andrew Jackson M^as born on the border of North and 
South Carolina, March 15, 1767. He began his military career at 
Hanging Rock at thirteen. 

P. 173. Red Eagle was among those who escaped. The whites 
sought him on every hand, determined to end his life. But he had 
disappeared. One day, to the astonishment of all, he came riding 
fearlessly into camp, and begged Jackson to send aid to the Indian 
women and children who were starving in the forest. Cries of 
" Kill him ! Kill him ! " rose on every hand. But Jackson would 
not permit it. He drew his pistol and himself stood guard over 
the red chief. " For shame, men ! " he cried. *' He who would 
shoot this brave, defenseless man would rob the dead ! " 

P. 178. Redoubt: A small fort or defensive outwork. 

P. 180. Hero Stories from American History. 

P. 185. This was twelve years before the election of Harrison. 

P. 202. Yawl: A ship's small boat, usually rowed by four or 
six oars. 

P. 203. Mids/iipinan: An officer of the lowest rank on a ship 
of war. 

P. 205. Essex: For a description of this unique shii), read 
Preble's Ships of the Nineteenth Century. 

P. 210. Tariff: A charge or duty imposed by the government on 
goods shipped out of or into our country. 

P. 212. Flotilla: A fleet of small vessels especially designed for 
throwing bombs. 

P. 214. Ram: An engine of war used for butting and battering. 

P. 216. That contained in David G. Farragiit, by Spears, is 
most concise and interesting, and one of the best extant. The 
Southerners, by Cyrus Townsend Brady, contains some graphic 
descriptions. Read, also, Parker's The Battle of Mobile Bay. 



262 NOTES 

• 

P. 221. James E. Eads was born in Lawrenceburg, Ind., May 22,, 
1820. 

P. 230. James B. Eads, by How. 

P. 2^2. During the building of the bridge he was obliged to 
spend many months in Europe for his health's sake. He left trust- 
worthy engineers in charge, and continually kept in touch with the 
work, planning and directing. While abroad, he picked up many 
ideas which were of use to him in perfecting his plans. 

P. 232. Jetties are simply dikes or levees laid under water and 
act as banks to a river to prevent the expansion and diffusion of its 
waters as they enter the sea. The Eads jetties are one of the most 
brilliant achievements of modern engineering. They were formed 
of layers of brush mattresses ranging from 95 to 35 feet wide and 
each weighted with broken stone. 

P. 236. In connection with this fact it must be remembered that 
Eads had not the school training of an engineer. He knew nothing 
of the higher mathematics which enabled his rivals to figure out 
problems, but his quick mind jumped to conclusions which were 
lightning-like in truth and accuracy. 

P. 241. Concerning his name someone has said he was to be 
called " Peter " because he was the " rock on which the family was 
to be built." 

P. 242. Lives of Great Philanthropists, by Cootc. 

P. 249. Mr. Cooper designed this locomotive to go around 
curves, because the English locomotives could go only on a straight 
track. ' This locomotive was built in 1829 for the Baltimore & Ohio 
Railroad and ran from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills, a distance of 
thirteen miles. 

P. 254. The body of this old carriage of Peter Cooper stands 
in the rotunda of Cooper Union. It bears this inscription: 

"Body of carriage owned by Mr. Peter Cooper, in which he 
drove himself to business every day and around New York. 

" It was sent to be repaired, but was partly destroyed by fire 
while in the shop. 

" Presented to the Cooper Union by Mrs. A. S. Hewitt." 

The picture for this illustration was taken especially for this book. 

P. 255. Dr. Chalmers. 



APR 35 1913 



ONGRES^ 




